Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

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Friday, March 2, 2012

Two New Mexico counties serious about storing spent fuel: ex-official


Two New Mexico counties serious about storing spent fuel: ex-official
Phoenix (Platts)--1Mar2012/407 pm EST/2107 GMT


Two New Mexico counties have joined forces to propose that 1,000 acres they jointly own be used as an interim storage facility for utility spent nuclear fuel, and they hope to have a business plan in 60 days on how to carry that out, a former local official said Thursday.

Speaking at a nuclear waste conference in Phoenix, Arizona, Bob Forrest, a former mayor of Carlsbad, New Mexico, said that Eddy and Lea counties had issued a request for information from companies that might be willing to work on this project. Nine teams responded, and the counties picked teams headed by Areva Inc. and Fluor, he said.

Carlsbad, which is in Eddy County, is where the US Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a deep-geologic repository for defense transuranic waste such as plutonium-contaminated gloves, rags and equipment, is located. The Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, or BRC, highlighted WIPP in a report the commission issued in January as an example of a consent-based siting process that worked.

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