Illegal and opposed
Beyond Nuclear files suit to stop massive radioactive waste dump
From Beyond Nuclear staff
Beyond Nuclear has filed suit in federal court to prevent the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from licensing a massive “consolidated interim storage facility” (CISF) for highly radioactive waste in Andrews County, West Texas.
In its Petition for Review filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Beyond Nuclear asked the Court to dismiss the NRC licensing proceeding for a permit to build and operate a CISF proposed by Interim Storage Partners (ISP), a business consortium. ISP plans to use the facility to store 40,000 metric tons of highly radioactive irradiated fuel generated by nuclear reactors across the U.S., (also euphemistically known as “used” or “spent” fuel), amounting to nearly half of the nation’s current inventory.
“It’s not cotton candy”
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission may soon consider new regulations that would allow WCS and other commercial sites to accept a higher level of nuclear waste than Texas currently allows.
The WCS facility is permitted to accept Class A, B, and C nuclear waste categories that fall below high-level material like spent nuclear fuel. But certain material, much of it generated by the decommissioning of nuclear power plants, falls into what experts call a gray area between the lower-level categories and spent nuclear fuel. It has an equally ambiguous name: “Greater than Class C.”
“These are some of the most dangerous materials in the world,” “It’s not cotton candy.”
Waste Control Specialists has been disposing of the nation’s low-level nuclear waste including tools, building materials and protective clothing exposed to radioactivity for a decade at a hazardous waste facility in Andrews County, on the New Mexico border. Credit: Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune
To get rid of eight gallons of water, the U.S. Department of Energy spent $100,000.
It’s little more than half a tank of gasoline in a midsize car, but the radioactive shipment from South Carolina to a West Texas company last fall marked one change that could lead to more nuclear waste traveling to Texas waste that, until recently, was considered too dangerous to be disposed of.
West Texas is on track to get even more nuclear waste thanks to the federal government
Texas Tribune
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Waste Control Specialists has been disposing of the nation’s low-level nuclear waste including tools, building materials and protective clothing exposed to radioactivity for a decade at a hazardous waste facility in Andrews County, on the New Mexico border. (Credit: Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune)
To get rid of eight gallons of water, the U.S. Department of Energy spent $100,000.
It’s little more than half a tank of gasoline in a midsize car, but the radioactive shipment from South Carolina to a West Texas company last fall marked one change that could lead to more nuclear waste traveling to Texas waste that, until recently, was considered too dangerous to be disposed of.