A rendering of Holtec International’s proposed nuclear waste storage site, which the company announced this week won’t happen in New Mexico. (Courtesy of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission)
A company that has for years sought to store nuclear waste in New Mexico announced this week that it was withdrawing that plan, citing an “untenable path forward for used fuel storage in New Mexico,” according to a spokesperson.
Florida-based company Holtec, in partnership with the local Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, has been seeking state and federal permission since at least 2018 to store spent nuclear fuel in Southeastern New Mexico. In May 2023, it received a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to “receive, possess, transfer and store 500 canisters holding approximately 8,680 metric tons of commercial spent nuclear fuel for 40 years.”
But earlier that year, the Legislature had passed Senate Bill 53 banning state agencies from granting permits, contracts or leases to build a high-level nuclear waste storage facility, including the New Mexico Department of Transportation and New Mexico Environment from issuing permits for construction and operations.
In a statement Thursday to Source New Mexico, Holtec spokesperson Patrick O’Brien suggested the statewide pushback was behind the decision to abandon its plans, known as the HI-STORE project, in the state.
“After discussions with our longtime partner in the HI-STORE project, the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, and due to the untenable path forward for used fuel storage in New Mexico, we mutually agreed upon cancelling the agreement,” O’Brien said in an email. “This allows for ELEA to work to redevelop the property in a manner that fits their needs and allows Holtec to work with other states who are amenable to used fuel storage.”
Some New Mexico elected officials cheered the announcement, including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Rep. Matthew McQueen (D-Galisteo), who sponsored SB53.
In a statement Thursday to Source, the governor said she is glad Holtec heard the state’s “strenuous objections,” citing the state law, and withdrew its plans.
“We stand firm in our resolve to protect our state from becoming a nuclear dumping ground,” she said.
In a statement on social media late Wednesday, her office noted New Mexico is already “doing its part” regarding nuclear waste storage at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
The announcement comes despite a June United States Supreme Court ruling favorable to companies like Holtec. The court ruled 6-3 that Texas and other parties lacked standing to challenge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision to provide a permit to another company with a proposed facility about 40 miles away in Texas.
At the time, local environmental groups, including the state’s chapter of the Sierra Club, decried the ruling because it removed their legal capacity to intervene in the NRC’s permitting process. Holtec, at the time, called the ruling “a significant win for the nuclear industry” that “reaffirms our license in NM.”
Still, longtime anti-nuclear advocate Don Hancock told Source in June that the state’s anti-waste protections, as well as what he described as bad economics for the company, made him skeptical New Mexicans would see truckloads of radioactive material anytime soon.
“I think they know they cannot proceed with the site in New Mexico,” he said June 18.
