SE New Mexico pitches new nuclear waste site

A coalition of southeast New Mexico government agencies plans to partner with French nuclear conglomerate Areva to try to bring high-level nuclear waste to a storage site between Carlsbad and Hobbs.

Four agencies — Eddy and Lea counties and the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs — have banded together to try to add highly radioactive waste from the nation’s nuclear power plants to the region’s growing nuclear portfolio. The agencies announced this week they are negotiating a deal with Areva, establishing a partnership in hopes of enticing the federal government into using a two square mile site midway between the two cities as an “interim storage site” for nearly 70 thousand metric tons of nuclear waste now scattered across the United States, primarily in storage facilities at existing US nuclear power plants. Because of high radiation danger, it must be stored in special shielded containers, sometimes under water.

But while the southeastern New Mexico communities push forward with their proposal, it remains unclear whether the US government, which currently has legal responsibility for the waste’s long term future, is interested in the project. Two pieces of legislation aimed at dealing with the nuclear waste issue, including establishing an interim storage project, died in this year’s gridlocked US Congress.

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