Legislation filed on Feb. 22 in the Texas Legislature aims to give Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists a competitive edge in the national market for disposal of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW).
Members of the state House and Senate introduced identical bills that would lower certain charges and reserve LLRW disposal capacity for Texas and Vermont at the facility operated under the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact.
Those two states are the only members of the compact, but 34 other states can ship their low-level waste to the facility. By statute, the waste disposal rate established by the state must be the highest level Texas and Vermont pay but the minimum charged to all other states.
Privately operated Waste Control Specialists manages the compact disposal facility for owner and licensee Texas at its property in Andrews County, and must negotiate disposal prices with its customers.
“[W]e believe that by allowing market-based competition it will help to ensure the long-term financial viability of the Compact Waste Facility and will be beneficial to all generators of LLRW,” Waste Control Specialists President and Chief Operating Officer David Carlson said by email Thursday. “In addition, it will ensure that there will always be capacity available for compact generators (Texas and Vermont).”
Waste Control Specialists operates one of four licensed commercial sites in the United States for disposal of low-level radioactive waste. It has consistently operated at a loss as it struggled for disposal business, costing prior owner Valhi Inc. tens of millions of dollars before being sold in January 2018 to private equity firm J.F. Lehman.
The compact waste facility alone costs Waste Control Specialists about $34 million per year to operate, but draws only $24 million in annual revenue, creating a $10 million yearly loss, the company told the state’s Compact Facility Legislative Oversight Committee.
Along with looking for new business opportunities — such as disposal of spent fuel from nuclear power plants — WCS has sought assistance from the state.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state regulator for radioactive waste, in October reduced a set of disposal fees at the compact facility
The bills from state Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R) and Sen. Kel Seliger (R), both of whom represent Andrews County, would address economic challenges to the compact facility laid out in a December report to the oversight committee. Those included: Waste generators in Texas are still using other disposal facilities, notably a Clive, Utah, site operated by rival (and nearly owner) EnergySolutions; the difficulty that competition creates in determining waste disposal projections and, thus, sufficient disposal fees; and excessive surcharges for disposal.
The legislation would amend existing language and add several sections to the portion of the Texas health and safety code covering radioactive materials.
The disposal surcharge on generators of out-of-compact waste would be reduced from 16.25 percent to 11.25 percent. Waste Control Specialists’ quarterly gross receipts payments to the state would also be reduced from 10 percent to 5 percent.
Under, the bill, Texas would be required to each year compare waste disposal fees paid by the two parties to the compact and all nonparty states. That assessment would have to cover: total invoiced compact waste disposal fees; total volume of “compact waste disposed”; and the average disposal fee. A few waste tyes would be excluded.
“If the average compact waste disposal fee charged to party state generators exceeds the average compact waste disposal fee charged to nonparty state generators, the compact waste disposal facility license holder must issue a rebate for the preceding year’s fees to the party-state generators in an amount sufficient to reduce the average compact waste disposal fee charge to party state generators after the rebate to $1 less than the average compact waste disposal fee charged to nonparty state generators,” the legislation says.
The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact was established in 1993. Maine was originally a member, but withdrew in 2002. Disposal operations began in 2012.
The eight-person Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission, featuring representatives from both member states, administers the disposal agreement. In the latest waste report, covering June 1 to Aug. 31 of last year, the WCS facility recorded 1,877.28 cubic feet and 380.97 curies of material disposed of from in-compact sources; out-of-compact sources represented 5,227.18 cubic feet and 66,308.2 curies of material.
The current total capacity is 9,000,000 cubic feet and 3,890,000 curies. Roughly 130,000 cubic feet has been emplaced to date, Carlson said, with 20 to 25 percent originating in Texas and Vermont.
The compact facility accepts Class A, B, and C low-level radioactive waste from sources including nuclear power plants, research facilities, hospitals, and industrial operations. The waste encompasses a long list of radioactively contaminated materials, including sealed sources, protective gear, paper, plastic, and glassware.
Only 30 percent of licensed capacity for the compact facility is currently is open to states other than Texas and Vermont, according to Waste Control Specialists.
If passed, the Landgraf-Seliger measure would set aside exclusive disposal capacity for the two states the greater of either: 3 million cubic feet, or the volume set by the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission in a capacity study the agency must perform at least every four years; and 2 million curies, or the curie capacity identified in the quadrennial studies.
Within the set-aside volume and curie levels, 80 percent would be for waste generated in Texas and the remaining for waste from “nonhost party states” – which, in this case, presently means Vermont.
The legislation would also place restrictions on disposal of non-party waste at the compact facility. In line with current regulations, Texas could accept nonparty waste only upon approval from the Texas Compact Commission. The facility would also need at least three years’ constructed capacity based on the average amount of waste from Texas and Vermont in the prior half-decade, not including a few waste types such as oversized parts.
If that amount of built capacity is not available, to accept additional non-party material the state would have to: build more capacity to meet the new rules under the law; obtain a performance bond from the Texas Compact Commission under which it would commit to building that capacity; or take some other step approved by power utilities in the two states.
At deadline Friday, the bills had not been assigned to specific committees in the Texas Legislature.
