Several national environmental groups recently filed a lawsuit to prevent a nuclear waste facility from opening in Texas near the New Mexico border.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an agency formed to ensure the safe use of radioactive material, is the target of the lawsuit, according to KRQE News. The agency is charged with illegally recommending a license for a nuclear waste storage facility across the state line, near Jal and Eunice. The lawsuit claims storing spent nuclear fuel from reactors in the area is illegal without proper approval.
Beyond Nuclear, one of the plaintiffs, is concerned the nuclear regulatory commission is getting ahead of Congress.
“Congress has very clearly said that the government cannot take title to nuclear waste until there is a permanent repository,” Mindy Goldstein, council for Beyond Nuclear, told KRQE News.
Goldstein and her partners say the NRC did not consider the dangers of transportation, earthquakes or long-term effects of the storage. A similar battle is brewing near Hobbs, where New Jersey-based Holtec got approval from the NRC to build a temporary nuclear waste facility.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) has said the state will not be “a dumping ground for spent nuclear fuel,” and other state leaders are concerned it could hurt the oil industry and put communities at risk. But Holtec was invited to consider New Mexico by groups looking to diversify the state’s energy sources. The Eddy-Lea County Energy Alliance said the proposed site near Hobbs has the perfect conditions for storage.
“We’re trying to diversify right now. Oil is king down here, but communities like us, we need to think forward and diversify our economies so that when these industries such as oil go south, we have basically a baseline economy,” Jack Volpato, Carlsbad Nuclear Task Force chairman, told KRQE News.
A decision on the New Mexico nuclear waste site could come early next year. If granted, the license could cover more than 40 years.
