We applaud the US Supreme Court’s decision in consolidated case NRC v. Texas and Interim Storage Partners v. Texas which affirmed NRC’s authority to license private used nuclear facilities. This ruling is expected to reinstate our license in New Mexico to build and commission our HI-STORE Consolidated Interim Storage Facility (CISF) and will allow us to move forward to engage with the State of New Mexico and the US Department of Energy (USDOE) on starting this nationally significant project. This joyous news, however, must be greeted with some provisos as the host state, New Mexico’s acquiescence is necessary which, despite overwhelming local support, is not assured at the state level. Also, USDOE’s concurrence to pay for the cost of transporting the fuel and storing it at HI-STORE is not yet a settled matter.
This license for the HI-STORE CISF was issued in 2023 by the NRC following their July 2022 approval of Holtec’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The final EIS, issued by the NRC after an exhaustive process which included consultation with Federal, State, Tribal and local agencies, input from the New Mexico Bureau of Land Management. Additionally, the Commission performed its own in-depth environmental review, which considered land use, transportation, geology and soils, surface and groundwater, ecological resources such as endangered species, historical and cultural resources, public and occupational health, environmental justice, socioeconomics, etc. The Commission concluded that HI-STORE CISF will not cause any materially adverse environmental consequences to the community and the region including other enterprises such as oil, gas and potash extraction, ranching, and farming activities. The HI-STORE CISF is envisaged to serve as an aging facility (hence the term Interim in its name) where the used fuel would be cooled until its heat emission rate drops below the permitted value for placement in the permanent repository.
“The HI-STORE CISF will employ our proven below-ground storage technology which is peerless in respect of blockage of radiation emanating from the stored fuel and ensuring the fuel’s continued physical integrity in the wake of an extreme environmental phenomenon or an act of malevolent terror. Our below-ground system deployed in Southern California, demonstrated to the NRC in 2014 that it can withstand a cataclysmic seismic event – one that exceeds the severity of any terrestrial earthquake recorded in human history!” says Dr. Kris Singh, inventor of the subterranean fuel storage technology and CEO of Holtec International.
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