Holtec walks away from nuclear waste project in New Mexico

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Private nuclear power company Holtec said this week it is walking away from a project to store nuclear waste in New Mexico, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that gave some hope to projects aiming to store the radioactive material.

In June, the Supreme Court threw out a legal challenge by Texas and New Mexico and some oil producers to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing of nuclear waste storage projects in drilling country, which some believed opened the way to temporary storage in those states.

But New Mexico state lawmakers and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham have opposed storing the waste at the site even temporarily, fearing that in the absence of permanent U.S. site for nuclear waste it would become a permanent fix.

Holtec said in a statement on Wednesday that it was leaving the HI-STORE project, which is near the oil and gas hub Carlsbad in the Permian Basin. "Due to the untenable path forward for used fuel storage in New Mexico, we mutually agreed upon cancelling the agreement," with partner the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, said the statement, which was first reported by Axios.

"It's been clear for years that most New Mexicans oppose spent fuel storage and disposal in the state. We're glad that Holtec has finally recognized that reality," said Don Hancock, director of the nuclear waste safety program at the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque.

Holtec spokesperson Pat O'Brien said the company hopes to work with other states that are amenable to storing the waste after outreach work by the U.S. Department of Energy that started during the former President Joe Biden's administration.

O'Brien said Holtec believes that communities from about 15 to 20 states will look to move forward with potential hosting of a storage facility.

Nuclear waste requires careful storage for thousands of years because it is dangerous to human health. It is now stored at nuclear power stations, both operating and closed.

The U.S. spent billions of dollars on a permanent site called Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but funding was halted in 2010 by former President Barack Obama's administration after opposition from state lawmakers.