The Permian Basin Is Not a Good Area To Store Nuclear Waste

The Permian Basin is NOT the geological paradise that Holtec or Interim Storage Partners claims. Placing volatile spent nuclear fuel rods near high seismic activity is not safe. What has happened to common sense?

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reviewed Holtec International’s application for a license to store high-level nuclear waste in New Mexico. They are allowing the license to be granted. But in late March, New Mexico sued the NRC because the planned interim storage site in Lea County will endanger residents, the environment, and the future of the area. 

The Holtec and Interim Storage Partners sites sit in a geological formation known as the Delaware Basin. This area has seen an uptick in earthquake activity over the last several years, mainly caused by the increase in oil and natural gas extraction.

From March 2020 to March 2021, a swarm of 100 earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 3 were recorded about 60 miles south of the Holtec site at the perimeter of the Delaware Basin. Before January of 2019, only 1 earthquake with a magnitude greater than 3 was recorded there. This extreme increase in seismic activity in the Permian Basin, the Delaware Basin to be exact, only adds to the instability of an area that is planned to store radioactive waste.

These earthquakes are called ‘induced earthquakes’ and can be caused by injected wastewater from drilling sites into an area as far away as 10 miles from a basement faultline. Since 2009, drilling has increased 4 times in this area of Texas and New Mexico. 

Another major concern is that lingering questions about the Holtec and Interim Storage Partner waste sites become de facto nuclear waste storage in America. The first phase alone would introduce 500 canisters of high-level nuclear waste to the Holtec site.

The specific type of earthquake was probably not included in the environmental studies by Holtec and ISP, because their reports say there is little seismic activity in the area. Meanwhile, the geological structure of the Permian Basin is riddled with basement fault lines: faults that can cause the most damage when combined with oil and gas production sites.