Santa Fe, NM–Yesterday, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas and Environment Secretary James Kenney asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to review the decision of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to grant a license to build a “Consolidated Interim Storage Facility” (CISF) in Andrews County, Texas. The facility, known as the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) CISF, would be located just a quarter of a mile from the New Mexico Border, 5 miles east of Eunice, New Mexico, and 45 miles east of the proposed Holtec CISF for which a license is also pending before the NRC. New Mexico previously filed a separate lawsuit challenging aspects of that licensing procedure. Yesterday’s filing in the 10th Circuit is a part of New Mexico’s multi-pronged challenge to NRC’s approval of both these high level nuclear waste storage facilities.
