Applications by Interim Storage Partners (ISP) for high level nuclear waste storage in West Texas and New Mexico are being considered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commisssion (NRC). The storage sites will serve nuclear plants east of the Mississippi. Most U.S.nuclear plants are east of the Mississippi.
One of the proposed sites is owned by Waste Control Specialists (WCS), which has a facility for storing low-level radioactive waste in Andrews County, Texas. WCS now wants to store high-level waste from nuclear reactors across the nation. This would involve transporting the high-level waste by train across the state, through many of our major metropolitan areas.
Nuclear Waste transport
Why it matters to us: To get it there the waste will be transported on Union Pacific rail lines going through the heart of north Texas. For Dallas County specifically - through the heart of Mesquite, Dallas and Grand Prairie. The red line in this graphic shows the path of the Union Pacific lines. The radius of concern is one half mile from the rail line for trains that might come to a standstill for any length of time. If there is a derailment or accident the scope of damage is much greater.
This isn’t the first time they have applied for this. In the November 2014 VOTER there was an article by Susybelle Gosslee about this very issue. Quoting from that article “high-level radioactive waste is mainly the spent fuel rods that released radiation at Fukushima – in a disaster that still poses further contamination risks”. The difference between 2014 and now is that in 2014 they wanted to transport the waste on highways – now they want to use railroads. The best solution for nuclear waste is HOSS (Hardened On-Site Storage). It makes no sense to move this material across the country from where the waste was generated. Especially when the current regulations allow the waste to be stored where generated for 60 years.
Comments to the NRC (comment period closed)
Email comments to WCS_CISF_EIS@nrc.gov Reference Docket ID: NRC-2016-0231-0342
Note: Your comment will be in the public record so don’t provide any identification you wish to keep private.
Check out some of the comments for their concerns and how they did it. This comment website is different from the email list above, but the comments are instructive.
https://beta.regulations.gov/document/NRC-2016-0231-0342 .
Legislative wrap-up of 86th Legislative Session, 2019
Several bills were filed in the House and Senate regarding the transportation and storage of low-level and high-level radioactive waste, carcinogens, and solid waste facilities. We would have supported all but two bills, but most were not even given a committee hearing. The five bills that got a committee hearing were SB 1021 (Seliger) OPPOSE, HB 2269 (Landgraf) OPPOSE, HB 4089 (Blanco) SUPPORT, HB 1391 (Bohac) SUPPORT, and HB 1435 (E. Thompson) SUPPORT. We gave testimony on the two we opposed: both bills passed their committees but were never voted on in their houses. HB 4089 and HB 1391 were left pending in their committees.
One bill did pass both houses and was signed by the governor: HB 1435. This bill requires state environmental officials to actually visit a proposed facility that will store, process or dispose of municipal solid waste before issuing or renewing a permit. It takes effect on 9/1/2019.
We gave testimony on May 30, 2019 to the Texas Low-level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission regarding Waste Control Specialist’s transportation and storage process and site in Andrews County. We also testified on October 17, 2019 before the Environmental Protection Agency in opposition to their proposed policy amendments to their New Source Performance Standards for the Oil and Gas Industry. Testimonies from 2019 are posted on the LWVTX website
my.lwv.org/texas/league-advocacy.