Activists Win Bid To Fight Nuclear Plant

Activists Win Bid To Fight Nuclear Plant

Jul 22 - Albuquerque Journal

A company that wants to build a nuclear fuel factory in New Mexico will have to do battle with activists over the waste the plant will produce, a federal panel ruled this week.

The activists won the right to raise issues -- "contentions" in the jargon of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- related to waste, water supplies and the cost of cleaning up after the plant ceases operations after three decades.

"All of the contentions that New Mexicans should be most concerned about -- the waste, the water, the costs -- all of those are going to be heard," said Michael Mariotte, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

Louisiana Energy Services, the company that wants to build the National Enrichment Facility, complained that Mariotte's group and Public Citizen, a second activist group fighting the plant, were merely obstructionists bent on blocking the proposed factory.

"We believe they have one goal and that is to make sure that the NEF is never built," said LES Vice President Marshall Cohen.

LES, a joint venture of multinational nuclear firms Urenco and Westinghouse, wants to build the factory on a site near Hobbs in southeastern New Mexico.

It would "enrich" uranium, processing it so it can be turned into nuclear power plant fuel. The project, which would employ more than 200 once it has built, has won strong support from local political officials.

Critics have objected to uncertainty about the company's plans to deal with the vast volume of hazardous waste the plant would produce.

NIRS and Public Citizen are intervening in hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must issue a license for the plant to be built. This week's ruling came from the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, which has jurisdiction over much of the licensing process. The ruling lays out what issues can legally be discussed during the upcoming license approval process.

While the organizations won the right to raise waste issues, the NRC panel turned away an attempt to raise nuclear nonproliferation concerns during the licensing process.

The NRC panel also ruled that the New Mexico Environment Department can raise radiation safety issues and that the New Mexico Attorney General's Office can raise questions about how much disposing of the waste will cost.

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit: http://www.energycentral.com .