The Texas county slated to host a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel was scheduled to discuss the issue in a meeting Thursday and, according to one stakeholder, potentially resolve it.
The Andrews County, Texas Commissioners’ Court will convene at 3:00 p.m. Central time “for a discussion and possible resolution” regarding Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed interim storage site, according to a Wednesday press release from the Permian Basin Coalition of Land and Royalty Owners. The Coalition, composed of local stakeholders like Fasken Oil and Ranch, has been a vocal opponent of the proposed ISP site.
ISP, a joint venture between Waste Control Specialists (WCS) and Paris-based nuclear services company Orano, is looking for federal permission to build a high-level waste storage facility at WCS’s existing low-level waste site in Andrews County.
After a public comment session last week Andrews County Executive Judge Charlie Falcon told RadWaste Monitor July 7 that most of the comments the Commissioners’ Court heard supported the existing low-level waste facility but opposed the interim storage project.
The Court hasn’t voted to take a position about the proposed waste site yet, Falcon said last week.
Andrews County is likely where the debate on Texas’s interim storage future will remain for now. In Austin, a proposed state House bill that would have endeavored to ban the storage of high-level waste in Texas failed after a procedural fracas forced it back into committee. The Lone Star State’s legislature doesn’t meet again until 2023.
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is trucking along on its licensing review for the proposed ISP site. The agency has said that an environmental impact statement for the site, an important milestone to licensing, should be done in the next few weeks. NRC chair Christopher Hanson said Wednesday that a final licensing decision would happen in September.
