By John Stang
Representatives of U.S. regional low-level radioactive waste compacts on Wednesday continued to discuss contingency plans for a financially ailing disposal facility in Texas.
No conclusions came out of the teleconference, which was a follow-up to a similar session earlier this month on the state-owned, privately run Texas Compact Waste Facility (CWF).
It is up to the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission to prepare the financial contingency plan for consideration by the other compacts, according to Dan Shrum, executive director of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Forum, which is coordinating the discussions. The participants selected Shrum to be their spokesman on the matter as head of the nonprofit corporation.
Several compacts participated in Wednesday’s call, with the next steps still to be determined, Shrum said. There is not yet an agreed-upon approach for lifting the Compact Waste Facility out of the red, but potential avenues include other states joining the compact, increased disposal fees, or subsidies.
The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission administers provisions of the agreement, including approval of shipments to the Andrews County facility managed by Waste Control Specialists (WCS). Commission Chairman Brandon Hurley said during a May 7 meeting he had discussed the financial assistance question with Shrum following a query from an executive from another compact.
The Texas Compact “may reach out to other compact members to follow up,” Shrum stated by email. The other compacts are supportive of helping the Texas Compact — consisting of Texas and Vermont —in preparing those plans, he said. The radioactive waste forum’s role is as a facilitator for the discussions, but it is not involved in the decision-making.
There are 10 regional compacts established under federal law, each encompassing two to six states, to manage disposal of low-level radioactive waste within its members’ borders. A handful of states do not belong to any compact.
The participants in Wednesday’s call briefly discussed whether any compact without a dedicated low-level radioactive waste disposal site would join the Texas Compact.
“Currently, none of the non-sited compacts are pursuing this option,” Shrum wrote. The Texas facility already accepts waste from 34 other states at higher fees than those charged to Texas and Vermont customers. Those include states unaffiliated with any regional compact and those that belong to other compacts.
Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists since 2012 has operated the Texas Compact Waste Facility on its disposal property near the state border with New Mexico. The overall four-facility WCS complex is one of just four licensed commercial operations in the United States for disposal of low-level radioactive waste. That covers a range of materials, including radioactively contaminated parts from decommissioning of nuclear power plants; soil, sludge, and other debris from property cleanups; and contaminated material from medical and federal operations.
In 2019, Waste Control Specialists said the Compact Waste Facility was running an annual $10 million loss, collecting $24 million in yearly revenue against $34 million in operating costs. Revenue is derived solely on fees and charges for waste shipments, which the company’s management has said have slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are not aware that the facility is not viable,” Shrum stated Thursday.
The licensed facilities for disposal of low-level waste are: the WCS complex, including the Compact Waste Facility; EnergySolutions’ operations in Clive, Utah, and Barnwell, S.C.; and the US Ecology site on the property of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash.
The Texas Compact Waste Facility is open for nationwide business in a way the others are not. US Ecology can only accept waste from the Northwest and Rocky Mountain compacts. Similarly, EnergySolutions’ operation in South Carolina is available only to the member states in the Atlantic Compact.
The Salt Lake City-based nuclear services firm is not under such geographic restrictions in Utah, but the disposal facility only takes Class A low-level waste, along with other radioactive waste types. The WCS facility accepts Class A. B and C low-level wastes.
