Victory in New Mexico
In the anti-nuclear movement, victories don’t come that often. All the more reason for celebration this past October when Holtec International and Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance’s (ELEA) decided to terminate their plans to build a “consolidated interim storage facility (CISF)” for high level radioactive waste in southeastern New Mexico. This project would have constructed and then operated the world’s largest high-level radioactive waste dump. Since no permanent solution to the disposal of radioactive waste has been devised, the idea that this facility would be “interim” is in fact highly misleading and unlikely.
A diverse coalition fought together against this facility. Beyond Nuclear a key participant, reports that “this hard-won environmental justice (EJ) victory” was the result of the work of “countless Indigenous, as well as grassroots EJ, environmental, and public interest allies for more than a decade of tireless work, to block this dangerous dump and the many thousands of “Mobile Chernobyl” radioactive waste shipments its opening would have launched nationwide.” Beyond Nuclear documented the individuals and groups involved in the many years of struggle in an October 13th report. ort.
As satisfying as this triumph is, it is vital to know that Holtec has not given up their efforts to create and operate a nuclear waste facility. Patrick O’Brien, a spokesperson for Holtec, said that that leaving the agreement allows Holtec to work with other states “amenable to used fuel storage based on the recent DOE (Department of Energy) work on public education and outreach.” This is because New Mexico had created an unsatisfactory climate for such a facility and operation. In 2023, the Legislature passed and Lujan Grisham signed Senate Bill 53 into law, which prevents state agencies and local officials from issuing permits or leases for nuclear waste storage facilities.
Beyond Nuclear petitioned the US Supreme Court on October 31, 2025 to overrule a decision by D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals that the NRC could lawfully issue a license to a company conditioned on speculated changes to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Holtec has not given up its NRC license, they have expressed interest in working other states to build and operate a nuclear waste facility, and/or may wait to see if the political climate in New Mexico changes. With a ruling in their favor that allows them to circumvent the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), Holtec has a path forward to create and operate a CISF, wherever they may have state interest.
There is also a very closely related case, NRC v. Texas, that involves a planned CISF by Interim Storage Partners, LLC, in Texas 0.3 miles from the New Mexico border. If the US Supreme Court allows Holtec to circumvent the NWPA, it sets a precedent for the NRC v. Texas case to also allow that project to move forward on the same grounds. Mindy Goldstein, co-counsel for Beyond Nuclear in the Supreme Court appeal, states that “We look forward to demonstrating to the Supreme Court that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act unequivocally prohibits Holtec’s storage of federally-owned spent fuel. The NRC cannot ignore this statutory prohibition, and it cannot issue Holtec a license based simply on the hope that Congress amends the law in the future.”
