NM Legislature, DoE clashing over nuclear waste and weapons of mass destruction

Volcanic clays like bentonite and ancient deposits like salt formations make the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico possible.

For years, there’s been debate over where to put the waste. And one way or another, the waste has to go somewhere. Now, New Mexico’s legislators are considering a bill that might help keep waste out of the state. Senate Bill 53, sponsored by a handful of Democratic legislators, aims to give New Mexico a stronger voice in negotiations with the federal government. In theory, the bill would increase New Mexico’s ability to decide if radioactive waste is stored in the state. The U.S. Constitution contains the “Supremacy Clause,” which generally says that federal laws take precedence over state laws. The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on an 8 – 1 bipartisan vote with some amendments. [Should nuclear waste be stored in New Mexico?]

But Democratic New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is at odds with the US Department of Energy and Bechtel National who seem to believe transporting diluted nuclear waste like plutonium over and over America's railroads and highways is completely harmless.

New Mexico lost its challenge to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision to grant a license to store nuclear waste in the state, after the Tenth Circuit dismissed the state’s petition for review on Friday. A three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit agreed with the federal government that the petition should be dismissed, finding that New Mexico lacked jurisdiction to bring the action under the Hobbs Act and Atomic Energy Act. New Mexico didn’t participate in the licensing proceeding or qualify as an aggrieved party, Judge Robert E. Bacharach wrote for the three-judge panel. [10th Cir. Tosses New Mexico’s Challenge to Nuclear Waste License]

Spurred by Heather Wilson, formerly the president of the South Dakota School of Mines, secretary in Donald Trump's Department of the Air Force and now president of the University of Texas El Paso, a Rapid City firm specializing in toxic waste had been floating the idea of a deep borehole where radioactive materials could be dumped. Wilson is a Republican former US Representative from New Mexico's 1st US congressional district, Air Force officer and lobbyist linked to double dealing at laboratories with ties to the military/industrial complex. 

Energy has set a goal of producing 80 new plutonium pits a year by 2035, enough to fully replace the triggers in every existing thermonuclear warhead by 2105.

If humanity doesn't destroy the planet there will come a time when it will be routine to launch waste too hot for humans to handle into the sun maybe from Spaceport America in New Mexico. 

Learn more at the Associated Press.

Nuclear weapons waste disposal using Carlsbad-area site draws fears, support from locals https://t.co/9lDxRWQ3p7 via @CCurrentArgus

— Adrian Hedden (@AdrianHedden) February 9, 2023