Holtec International and its partner, the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA), have launched the licensing of a consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in Southeastern New Mexico on land owned by ELEA. The facility, named HI-STORE CISF, will provide a significant step on the path to resolve the nation’s long standing used nuclear fuel storage problem by providing a safe, secure, temporary, retrievable and centralized facility for storage of used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.

The HI-STORE CISF seeks to fulfill the goal to aggregate the used nuclear fuel canisters presently scattered across the country at dozens of independent used fuel storage installations into one suitable location. The license application for the HI-STORE CISF was submitted to the USNRC on March 31, 2017 and accepted by the USNRC in February 2018 (USNRC Docket No. 72-1051).

The initial application for the HI-STORE facility includes storage of up to 8,680 metric tons of uranium in commercial used fuel (500 canisters) with future amendments for up to 10,000 storage canisters total. The U.S. currently has more than 80,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel in storage and more is being generated every day at a rate of 2,000 metric-tons per year.

https://holtecinternational.com/products-and-services/hi-store-cis/overview/

image : Rendering of the proposed HI-STORE Consolidated Interim Storage Facility in New Mexico. Credit: Holtec International