Texas in the crosshairs for high-level radioactive waste

Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps spent two days monitoring the Division of Spent Fuel Management Regulator Conference hosted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, November 18-19.   There, Beyond Nuclear learned that two radioactive waste behemoths -- Waste Control Specialists of Texas and EnergySolutions of Utah -- have merged.

“With two powerhouse radioactive waste companies pooling their resources, this puts Texas right in the cross-hairs as the top target for a de facto permanent parking lot dump for the country’s commercial high-level radioactive waste,” Kamps said.  

Waste Control Specialists already operates a so-called "low-level" radioactive waste burial dump at its West Texas site, putting the Ogallala Aquifer at risk of radioactive contamination.  The proposed “Consolidated Interim Storage” (CIS) program, supported by the White House and U.S. Department of Energy, would move high-level radioactive waste from all the country’s nuclear power plants to allegedly temporary parking lot dump sites.  

“Texas could find itself playing host to these deadly radioactive wastes permanently,” Kamps said.  “This merger makes the West Texas site that already houses Class A, B and C so-called “low-level” radioactive waste far more attractive to an industry that would like to bury its inconvenient radioactive waste problem, both literally and figuratively.”