New Mexico & El Paso
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the WCS/ISP high-level “temporary” storage for used fuel rods from commercial nuclear reactors. These fuel cores remain extremely radioactive for a million years, despite objections from both Texas and New Mexico governors. This site is 5 miles from Eunice, NM, the largest nearby city.
About 20% of US electricity comes from nuclear power. The NRC wants to dump the nuclear waste from these plants in New Mexico and Texas, shipped over underfunded rail routes.
Some people call it economic diversity for Lea County, N.M. I recall the days when I would see a calm and dry desert scene common in this area, with cows and the occasional coyote or rabbit. Now I see red blinking lights and industrial activity.
The public has until July 22 to tell the NRC to stop the poorly-conceived Holtec ‘temporary’ nuclear waste storage facility in Lea County.
On May 7, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that its Atomic Safety and Licensing Board had rejected every objection made by intervenors challenging Holtec International’s application to build a storage facility for high-level nuclear waste in southeast New Mexico.
There are approximately 100 uranium-powered plants in the United States. They are located in urban centers near waterways that are used to cool the operation of the power plants. Utility owners and these communities’ elected officials are “decommissioning” aged-out uranium-powered plants. As there is no technology capable of removing radiation, they are looking to ‘store’ the waste in rural areas such as our backyard.
Sierra Club attorneys and others objecting to the Holtec proposed nuclear-waste facility in southeast New Mexico will present oral arguments to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board on Jan. 23. Please attend to raise your voice in opposition to this
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 16, 2018 Growing concern across the state about the risks of a controversial proposal to store high-level radioactive waste in Southeast New Mexico has resulted in the addition of two Nuclear Regulatory Commission public meetings and an
“We don’t want it,” say local businesspeople concerned about radioactive-waste impacts of proposed SE New Mexico nuclear storage site. Read the 4/30/2018 press release.
Holtec International has a controversial plan to store up to 100,000 tons of the nation’s most dangerous nuclear-reactor waste, for as long as 120 years, at a site between Hobbs and Carlsbad. More than 10,000 rail cars of high-level radioactive waste will be dumped on New Mexico if this project is approved. Opponents are concerned about the health, safety, transportation, financial, and environmental-justice aspects of storing high-level radioactive waste that would impact thousands of generations to come.