Earlier this month, a letter was issued by Governor Susana Martinez, according to which New Mexico is looking forward to tout a rural area in the southeastern part of the state as an interim storage site for the country's high-level nuclear waste.

In a letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, the governor reached out to the Obama administration. In the April 10 letter, obtained by the Santa Fe New Mexican, Martinez has urged the officials to consider a 1,000-acre parcel as a place to store spent radioactive fuel rods from power plants.

Further, Martinez praised the residents of southeastern New Mexico for being able to ‘carve out a niche in the nuclear industry’.

Martinez wrote that the citizens of southeastern New Mexico have impressed her every time, with their hard work ethic and willingness to tackle national problems, which according to many others is unsolvable.

The proposal included the officials in Lea and Eddy counties. The site is present at about a mile north of US 62/180, halfway between Carlsbad and Hobbs.

According to the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, a consortium of city and county governments, the potential disposal ground could bring jobs and economic growth.

John Heaton, a former state lawmaker and alliance chairman, said that all need to recognize that they're not a Santa Fe, and they're not an Albuquerque that has a self-sustaining economy. He said that they're out here in the hinterlands, and are required to find their own niches.

In a written statement, a spokesman for Martinez said that the letter was only a preliminary endorsement. He added that the governor is in the favor of ensuring that all voices are heard before the selection of any interim storage site.

It is not only the New Mexico state, which has been competing to be the interim dumping ground for nuclear waste.