Plan to store nuke fuel in New Mexico gets 1st regulatory OK - HoustonChronicle.com

Plan to store nuke fuel in New Mexico gets 1st regulatory OK - HoustonChronicle.com: ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Federal regulators are recommending licensing a proposed multibillion-dollar complex in southern New Mexico that would temporarily store spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors around the United States. But the recommendation issued this week by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is making waves with critics who say the agency did not look closely enough at potential conflicts with locating the facility in the heart of the Permian Basin, one of the world’s most prolific energy production regions. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other top elected officials are among those who have long had concerns about the potential environmental effects and the prospects of the state becoming a permanent dumping ground for spent nuclear fuel because the federal government lacks a permanent plan for what to do with the waste piling up at power plants around the country. The commission noted in its draft environmental review that the facility would not affect the environment or interfere with the oil industry because drilling taps into layers that are far deeper than where the storage site would be located. New Jersey-based Holtec International is seeking a 4