NRC poised to begin Holtec/ELEA CISF/MRS licensing proceeding
Thanks to Don Hancock of Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico for watch-dogging the twists and turns. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is now poised to proceed with environmental scoping, as well as the legally contested licensing proceeding, for the Centralized Interim Storage Facility/Monitored Retrievable Storage targeted at southeastern New Mexico by Holtec International and the Eddy-Lea [Counties] Energy Alliance.
As reported by Don Hancock today (Thursday, March 29, 2018):
[Linked above] is the...Federal Register notice that starts the 60-day public scoping period.
The scoping period starts [March 30] and runs through May 29 - I did check those dates with Jill Caverly, the [NRC] contact person in the FR notice.
The scoping meeting dates are not listed in the FR and won't be in the FR until next Friday [April 6, 2018], but are as I was told before and listed below. They will likely be posted on the NRC website on Monday [April 2, 2018] or Tuesday [April 3, 2018] and a [NRC] press release with the information will go out then.
Jill also confirmed that there will be a court reporter in Roswell, so people also can make scoping comments there.
For our information about how people submit comments:
By mail:
May Ma
Office of Administration
Mail Stop: TWFN-7-A60M
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001
By email:
The notice includes two ways, the "official" way won't accept comments until tomorrow [Friday, March 30, 2018]. So I'm checking about the other option(s).
Here is the way to submit written comments online, per the March 30, 2018 Federal Register Notice:
Federal Rulemaking website: Go to
http://www.regulations.gov and search
for Docket ID NRC–2018–0052.
And here are those dates Don Hancock mentioned above:
The formal announcement will [likely] be in Friday [April 6] Federal Register [Notice, as Don Hancock reported above].
The Dates [for NRC environmental scoping public comment meetings]: Monday, April 30 - Open House in Roswell from 4 to 7 [please note that all times are in Mountain Time]
Tuesday, May 1 - Open House in Hobbs from 6-7; 7-10 scoping comments
Thursday, May 3 - Open House in Carlsbad from 6-7; 7-10 scoping comments.
There will also be a phone in/webinar for public comments on Wednesday, April 25
The scoping comment period will be for 60 days. [It began March 30th, and will end May 29th]
The [legal] intervention notice won't be out until probably April 6 for a 60-day timeframe to file interventions/contentions.
Beyond Nuclear plans on sending a representative (Radioactive Waste Watchdog Kevin Kamps) to southeastern New Mexico, to take part in the environmental scoping public comment meetings.
ASAP, Beyond Nuclear will prepare and share sample public comments, of varying lengths and detail, that you can use to prepare and submit your own to NRC.
Beyond Nuclear also plans to legally intervene against the Holtec/ELEA CISF/MRS site. Beyond Nuclear's legal counsel are Diane Curran of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg + Eisbenberg, LLP of Washington, D.C. and Mindy Goldstein of Emory University's Turner Environmental Law Clinic in Atlanta, GA.
March 29, 2018