‘Deadly, toxic business’: New Mexico will reject nation’s nuclear waste, activists vow

In Southern California, the greatest hope for removing highly radioactive nuclear waste from the quake-prone coast might be those private, temporary storage sites that need licenses from the federal government to open.

But in New Mexico — where Holtec International wants to build such a site that could store waste from San Onofre, Diablo Canyon and scores of other commercial reactors — locals vow to do everything in their power to keep the state from becoming America’s biggest nuclear waste dump.

“The rush is on by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to grant Holtec a license before the people realize we’re being sacrificed for another government nuclear experiment,” said Noel Marquez, an artist and member of the Alliance for Environmental Strategies.

“We’re having to research, for ourselves, the long-term consequences of this deadly, toxic business. We’re being targeted for environmental injustice.”

The passionate show-of-force came Tuesday, the day before the NRC’s three-judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Board heard oral arguments from project opponents in Albuquerque. The aim is to figure out which groups have standing with the NRC to oppose the Holtec project, but legal challenges to the plan are under way in other courts as well.

Below the radar, the NRC’s plan for temporarily storing nuclear waste is actually working pretty well, said Terry Lodge, an attorney for opponents: “They are storing waste at nuclear reactor sites, relatively uneventfully and not particularly expensively,” he said.

That, to many Californians near the shuttered San Onofre and Diablo Canyon plants, is exactly the problem.

‘Entire project is illegal’

Those familiar with America’s nuclear waste wars may be experiencing Yucca Mountain deja vu.

New Mexico, like Nevada, has no commercial nuclear reactors. Many New Mexicans, like many Nevadans, don’t want to become the nation’s nuclear dump. But New Mexicans, unlike Nevadans, have a different legal argument to make.

Congress’ Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 forbids permanent waste storage on the Earth’s surface, and  —  given the federal government’s decades-long paralysis in finding a permanent, deep geologic repository —  Holtec’s temporary facility could well wind up being a permanent one, they say.

“The entire project is illegal,” said Diane Curran, an attorney representing the group Beyond Nuclear. If New Mexicans “step up and say, ‘We’ll take it in our above-ground facility,’ I’m really afraid you’ll have it forever —  a shallow graveyard for the nation’s nuclear waste.”

At a press briefing Tuesday, opponents raised the specter of cracked and damaged fuel canisters and/or rods; of dangers related to transporting canisters from all corners of the country to New Mexico by road or rail; and of the “geologic unsuitability” of the Southeastern New Mexico site, where there are underground caves, sinkholes from mining and brine that could corrode the storage containers. They also painted Holtec as an opportunistic player trying to maximize its profits and eliminate all risk.

Holtec is in some hot water with the NRC for redesigning spent fuel canisters used at San Onofre without notifying the NRC and following proper procedures.

‘Industry leader’

The company defended itself.

“Holtec International, the world leader in spent nuclear fuel storage and transport technologies, disputes the groundless allegations raised by opposition groups to the HI-STORE Consolidated Interim Storage Facility in Lea County, New Mexico,” it said in a statement.

“Our company is a leader in the nuclear energy industry. Our products are in use all around the world, and have been tested and proven to be safe, robust and reliable.”

To those on the San Onofre Community Engagement Panel —  the volunteer group advising Edison on the plant’s tear-down —  temporary storage has long held the greatest hope of getting waste off the bluff quickly. This is just the latest obstacle in the slow, steady slog forward.

“We have been expecting this all along, and there have for years been rumblings about opposition to this in New Mexico —mainly from organized groups in Santa Fe rather than from the communities around the actual proposed site,” said David Victor, international law professor at UC San Diego and chairman of the engagement panel.

“The new governor in New Mexico probably raises the hurdle for this project a bit higher since an activity like this won’t happen if a state governor actively blocks it.”

Victor said the engagement panel wants to ensure accurate information is presented because “the public interest is not best served by fictions ginned up with the goal of gaining media attention and spawning fear.”

“Many of these things are for New Mexicans to sort out through their political processes, and our interest is to help them get accurate information and offer real consent.”

There’s one thing all sides agree on, says attorney Curran: “The political will needed to solve this problem is something the whole country needs to get behind.”