NEW UPDATE OCTOBER 10, 2025:
Holtec abandons plan to build New Mexico storage facility for spent nuclear fuel
This is excellent news. The Governor and state legislature (specifically Senator Jeff Steinborn and Representative McQueen) are to be commended for not allowing New Mexico to become the nation’s dumping ground for highly radioactive commercial spent fuel rods, especially when the Land of Enchantment has never had its own nuclear energy plant. Hard work from many New Mexicans made this happen.
So-called “interim” storage would never be interim when the federal government has failed for more than four decades to find a permanent repository for these lethal wastes. This also shows how hollow all the hype is about the claimed renaissance of nuclear power, when on the front end the industry can’t survive without taxpayer handouts, and on the back end can’t solve its radioactive waste problem.
Holtec’s quote that “New Mexico’s acquiescence is necessary” for interim storage to go forward is interesting, implying that we have to surrender as the nuclear colony that we are. Well, guess what, we didn’t surrender, and I predict you’ll see more of this. Moreover, whether you’re pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear, fundamentally, Holtec is a corrupt company, which is why the attorneys general of New Jersey and Massachusetts have sued it.
Adios and good riddance, Holtec!
Holtec is a fundamentally corrupt company:
New York Times: Tax Break Scandal Leads to $5 Million Fine for N.J. Energy Company
SEE MORE:
Previous blog from August 31st:
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/15/nuke-waste-storage-nm-holtec
The two articles above describe new updates on Holtec’s nuclear waste storage plan in New Mexico.
Background: In June 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision reinstated the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) license for a private “interim” high-level nuclear waste storage facility, formally known as a Consolidated Interim Storage Facility (CISF), in West Texas by the company Interim Storage Partners, reversing a prior appeals court ruling. Holtec claims this ruling also effectively restores their previously vacated license for its proposed CISF in Lea County, New Mexico.
New Mexico’s legal resistance to Holtec holds firm. State lawmakers passed Senate Bill 53 in March 2023, prohibiting any state agencies from permitting high-level radioactive waste storage projects. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has reiterated strong opposition, saying “Holtec is not welcome” in the state. https://sourcenm.com/2025/06/18/state-laws-protect-new-mexico-despite-scotus-nuclear-storage-ruling-against-texas-experts-say/
Big News: Just last month, on July 28, 2025, Holtec informed the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (its local partner) that state legislation and political resistance have made the project “impossible in the near future.” Holtec intends to pursue termination of its revenue-sharing agreement with Eddy-Lea. Even with a license in hand, Holtec cannot proceed without state permits, and New Mexico law (SB 53) prohibits those.
The New Mexico and Texas state laws blocking CISF facilities were hard-won victories, and aggressive advocacy is ongoing to continue legal and legislative pressure against the storage plan. See https://beyondnuclear.org/is-holtec-pulling-out-of-new-mexico/ for more! Our colleague organization Beyond Nuclear and other environmental groups continue to argue against Holtec’s New Mexico CISF scheme, which has obtained an NRC license that, thus far anyway, has been upheld by the federal courts.
“We hope to nonetheless stop the Holtec CISF, as well as the Interim Storage Partners CISF, 40-some miles to the east of Holtec’s site, in Andrews County, Texas, despite court-backed NRC license approval.”
The June Supreme Court ruling reinstated Holtec’s license by deciding that outside groups (states, NGOs, industry challengers) lacked proper standing to block it. But the Court did not rule on the merits of whether NRC has the statutory authority under the NWPA to issue such a license in the first place. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982 gives the Department of Energy (DOE) the job of managing the nation’s high-level radioactive waste. The NWPA does not authorize the NRC to license private, away-from-reactor “interim” storage sites like Holtec’s. This leaves the door open to future challenges, either in court or in Congress, about the legality of private CISFs.
The public and NM and TX state officials continue to decry the risks of these CISFs, including the real possibility of the “interim” site becoming effectively permanent, the increase in radioactive waste transport, and the broader impacts on communities near the oil-producing Permian Basin in west Texas and the already oversubscribed transuranic waste dump in southeastern New Mexico, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
