Second time’s the charm for a proposed bill aimed at banning the storage of high-level nuclear waste including spent fuel in Texas, which cleared both houses of the state legislature this week in a parliamentary blitz.
The measure, co-sponsored by state Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R) and state Sen. Brian Birdwell (R), passed in its second trip to the Texas House on a 119-3 vote Thursday afternoon. The bill cleared the House last week on a voice vote.
The proposed measure found its way back down to the legislature’s lower chamber after the state Senate amended it Wednesday to ensure a high-level waste ban becomes law before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can license a proposed commercial interim storage facility for spent fuel in the Lone Star State.
NRC has said it would come to a final decision about Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed interim storage site in Andrews, Texas this month. Landgraf, who represents Andrews, said at Thursday’s session that he believed a licensing decision could happen as soon as Sep. 13.
NRC staff July 29 recommended in an environmental review that ISP’s site receive a license. The company said in a statement at the time that the agency’s decision was “another indication of our application’s quality and thoroughness.”
“[T]he application submitted by ISP to construct and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for used nuclear fuel will have no discernable negative effects on the environment or natural resources,” the statement said.
If Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signs the bill into law, Texas will ban the storage and transportation of high-level waste including spent nuclear fuel within its borders. Abbott himself has expressed his opposition to interim storage, penning a letter to then-President Donald Trump (R) in October asking the White House to block NRC from licensing ISP’s site.
At deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor Abbott hadn’t signed the bill into law.
This is Landgraf and Birdwell’s second attempt to ram a high-level waste ban through the Texas legislature. A parliamentary snag brought down the initial bill in the state House back in May, and it never got a vote in the state Senate.
ISP, a joint venture between Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists (WCS) and Orano USA, proposed an interim storage site at WCS’s existing low-level waste storage facility in Andrews. It’s one of two commercial interim sites currently awaiting NRC approval. The other, owned by Holtec International, would be built just west of Andrews in Lea County, N.M.
