Experts tell legislators on the New Mexico House Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee that the state needs to establish a one-mile setback from oil and gas operations to safeguard the state's children.
The committee, chaired by Rep. Joanne J. Ferrary, met Sept. 10 to hear reports claiming being any closer to the oil and gas operations endangers children. They also heard that a plan for highly enriched uranium production to fuel small nuclear power reactors would create a larger terrorism threat because the fuel can be used directly to produce nuclear weapons.
The Center for Biological Diversity's Colin Cox said that 34,584 students attend school within one mile of an oil well. The organization's report to the committee said that oil and gas production emits toxic air pollution, which can cause adverse health outcomes that include reproductive, perinatal, and respiratory problems. Cox said children are vulnerable because their bodies are still developing.
Wells within the health buffer zone would be phased out, plugged and remediated within the next three years in the plan Cox presented. Until that is done, oil and gas facility operators in those zones must implement additional pollution controls and monitor to ensure no pollution leaks from the sites.
As Urenco presented a plan to increase the enrichment of uranium in light of how the conflict in Ukraine changed the energy market, the Union of Concerned Scientists shared an analysis published in "Science" that the high assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) being produced will create greater terrorism and nuclear proliferation threats. Additional security measures are needed, or countries will be able to obtain, produce, and process weapons-usable HALEU. Those countries would be days away from a bomb, the analysis in Science magazine said.