Uranium Enrichment Plant in New Mexico
Feb 24 - The Santa Fe New Mexican
The company that wants to open a uranium-enrichment plant in Southern New Mexico says it anticipates no change in its development plans despite Gov. Bill Richardson's warning this week that he's considering withdrawing support for the project.
Louisiana Energy Services has applied to the federal Nuclear Regulatory
Commission for a permit to open a $1 billion uranium- enrichment plant in Lea
County near the town of Eunice. Louisiana Energy Services is largely owned by a
consortium of European energy companies.
Fuel from the plant would go to nuclear reactors. There is currently no
facility in the country to treat radioactive-waste material from the plant to
make it safe for long-term disposal.
Cohen said the company wants to see a private facility developed that will be
able to process waste from the enrichment plant. "That's our preferred,
constantly stated solution to this," he said.
Richardson said this week he is worried Louisiana Energy Services hasn't
specified in its application to the federal government an absolute commitment
that it won't allow waste to remain in the state.
In addition, Richardson said he's concerned that little action has taken
place in Congress to specify that waste won't remain in New Mexico.
If Richardson opposes the project, state officials say, the state likely has
the muscle to stop the project. Louisiana Energy Services needs a half-dozen
state environmental permits, and the state could also oppose the company's
federal-permit application.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., invited Louisiana Energy Services to New Mexico
after the company's plans to build an enrichment plant in Tennessee fell through
last year in the face of stiff public opposition.
Domenici included language in the Senate Energy Bill that died last year
indicating that Louisiana Energy Services could turn over its waste to the U.S.
Department of Energy. The senator has included that language in the energy bill
again this year.
Domenici last year pledged to Richardson he would introduce legislation
specifying that if DOE takes ownership of waste from the plant, the federal
agency won't allow the waste to remain in the state.
Yet Richardson said Tuesday he's concerned that no action has occurred so far
this year in Congress to specify that waste won't remain in New Mexico.
Matt Letourneau, a spokesman for Domenici in Washington, D.C., said Wednesday
that Domenici still intends to introduce legislation specifying the federal
government would remove waste from New Mexico if it ever got ownership of that
waste.
Letourneau added that Richardson knows Congress only recently began its work
on appropriations bills. Letourneau said Domenici will continue to look for the
proper appropriations bill to carry language specifying that no waste could
remain in the state.
"The senator's position is the same: He would continue to support the
project. I don't see any changes," Letourneau said.
The federal government has hundreds of thousands of tons of waste from its
old uranium-enrichment plants stockpiled in Kentucky and Ohio awaiting
construction of a treatment plant before it can be disposed of. Ohio Gov. Bob
Taft recently wrote to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission stating his opposition
to waste from the planned Louisiana Energy Services plant being shipped to his
state.
Letourneau said Domenci recently asked a senior official in the U.S.
Department of Energy whether Ohio has authority to limit importation of waste
from New Mexico. Letourneau said the agency hasn't answered the question.
The company wouldn't turn waste over to DOE if it takes possession of such
material without a guarantee it would be removed from New Mexico, Cohen said.
Louisiana Energy Services intends to remain in close communication with
Richardson's office about its progress in developing the plant, he said.