A bill on the Texas governor’s desk that would ban the storage of high-level nuclear waste has the support of a coalition of anti-nuclear groups, according to a Tuesday press release.
Representatives of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition, Public Citizen and the Texas branch of the Sierra Club applauded the state legislature for passing the proposed high-level waste ban on an “overwhelming vote” in Tuesday’s press release. The groups praised the bipartisan nature of the bill, which passed 119-3 in the state House Sep. 2.
“Such a strong bipartisan vote is rare these days in Texas,” the release said.
SEED Coalition director Karen Hadden said that the measure, if signed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R), would “provide the safety protections Texans need and prevent unnecessary transportation risks nationwide.”
If the bill becomes law, Texas would ban the storage or transportation of high-level nuclear waste including spent fuel in the state. At deadline Wednesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing Abbott hadn’t yet signed the bill.
A high-level waste ban would be a setback for Interim Storage Partners (ISP), the Waste Control Specialists (WCS)-Orano joint venture which plans to build an interim storage facility for spent fuel at WCS’s existing low-level waste site in Andrews, Texas. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is poised this month to make a final decision on whether to license the proposed site — NRC staff in July recommended that the agency give ISP the green light.
Opposition to the proposed ISP site hasn’t just come from the state level. The Andrews County commission voted unanimously July 15 to formally oppose the project after a public hearing. WCS president David Carlson, speaking at the meeting, said that his company was “a good citizen” of Andrews and that there was “no safety or environmental issue” with the proposed interim storage site.
ISP’s proposed site is just one of two such commercial interim storage facilities under federal review. A similar site in Lea County, N.M. owned by Holtec International is also in the latter stages of an NRC review. The agency has said a final decision on the Holtec site should come down in January.
