{"id":43083,"date":"2023-08-29T09:10:12","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T16:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=43083"},"modified":"2023-08-29T09:11:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T16:11:10","slug":"new-mexico-oftentimes-doesnt-get-a-say-in-its-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/new-mexico-oftentimes-doesnt-get-a-say-in-its-future\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018New Mexico oftentimes doesn’t get a say in its future.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Earlier this year, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a 40-year license to Holtec International<\/a>. The company plans to build an interim storage facility between Hobbs and Carlsbad, and the waste would come from power plants that Holtec, a private company, is decommissioning elsewhere in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Mexico has a long history with the federal government\u2019s nuclear weapons program and its waste, some of which is interred at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Holtec is planning is different. And to understand, we need to look back a few decades.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1982, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act<\/a>. That law was supposed to establish a \u201ccomprehensive national program for the safe, permanent disposal of radioactive waste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in 1987, Congress amended the act and named Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as the permanent repository. The federal government spent more than 30 years\u2014and more than $15 billion<\/a>\u2014planning that repository. Despite Nevada\u2019s opposition to the plan, it wasn\u2019t until two years ago that the Biden administration finally took Yucca Mountain off the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But of course, the spent fuel hasn\u2019t just disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, there\u2019s nuclear waste at more than 100 sites in 39 states<\/a>. Some of that waste is from weapons. But most comes from power plants. In fact, in the United States, there\u2019s about 97,000 tons of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there\u2019s still no safe, permanent place to put it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or community that wants it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s where a thousand-acre plot of land in southeastern New Mexico comes into the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n