Fears of a proposed nuclear waste repository between Carlsbad and Hobbs extended beyond the two cities, stirring anxiety from residents across New Mexico and west Texas.
Leona Morgan, co-coordinator of the Albuquerque-based Nuclear Issues Study Group and a Diné activist, said the potential horrors of nuclear exposure were already felt by Native American residents in the Four Corners Region of New Mexico, where uranium was mined until the late 1990s.
Morgan said the concerns of Native Americans, such as the Navajo Nation, are often ignored by the federal government.
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Holtec International, a New Jersey-based company specializing in nuclear storage, applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March 2017 for the first phase of an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel rods.
The application was accepted by the NRC in March, and the NRC moved forward with the application process by holding “scoping meetings” to solicit public comments in Roswell and Hobbs Monday and Tuesday respectively, and then in Carlsbad on Thursday at the Eddy County Fire Service.
The first phase would include 500 canisters of spent nuclear fuel rods, brought in by rail cars from nuclear power plants across the country, and stored at the property about 35 miles east of Carlsbad.
In total, 10,000 canisters could be stored at the site, totaling up to 120,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel.
Read more at Proposed nuclear storage site in southeast New Mexico accused of ‘nuclear colonialism’
