The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has signed off on the latest iteration of the performance assessment for two radioactive waste disposal facilities operated by Waste Control Specialists (WCS).
The agency is the regulator for management of radioactive waste in the state, including the WCS complex in Andrews County.
Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists must update its performance assessment twice per decade. It addresses matters including geology, surface water and groundwater, potential intrusions, and scenarios for the property’s use up to 1 million years to the future, according to a Nov. 8 WCS press release.
The performance assessment covers Waste Control Specialists’ Federal Waste Facility, which can take low-level radioactive waste and mixed low-level waste from the Department of Energy and other federal customers; and the Compact Waste Facility, used for disposal of low-level radioactive waste under the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved the latest update on Oct. 30.
The Waste Control Specialists’ site is one of four commercial facilities in the United States licensed for permanent disposal of low-level waste.
“The TCEQ review and approval validates that not only are we the safest site for low-level radioactive waste disposal right now, but that the site’s unique characteristics will continue to protect the people and the surrounding environment well beyond the foreseeable future,” WCS President and Chief Operating Officer David Carlson said in the release.
