The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Wednesday approved reductions to a number of fees for disposal of low-level radioactive waste in the state.
The fee reductions were part of a larger rulemaking for the Texas Administrative Code, which also updates language in several state regulations on radioactive waste management and requires licensees to minimize introduction of residual radioactivity at their site. The two current TCEQ commissioners – Chairman Jon Niermann and Commissioner Emily Lindley – signed off on the rulemaking with little discussion.
The rate changes apply to waste shipped to the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact facility, which is owned by the state and operated by Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists at its disposal complex in Andrews County. The facility was established primarily to take waste from the members of the compact – currently Texas and Vermont – but accepts material from all generating states willing to pay the fees.
The fee changes were requested by former management at Waste Control Specialists, which in recent years lost millions of dollars for then-owner Valhi Inc. The company was sold in January to private equity firm J.F. Lehman & Co.
“We support today’s rulemaking,” WCS President and Chief Operating Officer David Carlson said Thursday in a statement to RadWaste Monitor. “The rulemaking will benefit our commercial customers and it will support our objective to provide competitive services for all radioactive waste including Class A, B, and C LLRW.”
Carlson attended the TCEQ meeting, but was not asked to answer any questions.
The rulemaking sets a consistent charge of $100 per cubic foot for disposal of Class A low-level waste, eliminating a separate fee of $180 per cubic foot for shielded material. Also gone is the $350 per cubic foot charge for disposal of untreated biological waste.
Under radioactivity charges, the commission reduced the curie inventory charge from $0.55 to $0.40 per millicurie and scrapped charges for carbon-14 and special nuclear material.
The surcharge for containers weighing 10,000 pounds to 50,000 pounds was similarly eliminated, along with three dose rate surcharges and a cask-handling surcharge of $2,500 per container.
Under state regulations, members of the compact cannot be charged more than the listed amounts while out-of-compact generators must pay more.
Gross receipt fees on low-level radioactive waste generated $26 million in fiscal 2017, according to the rulemaking document published in June.
“The proposed reduction in disposal fees for LLRW will result in a reduction of revenue generated for the licensee of an estimated $3.21 million under current waste streams,” the document says. “It is not possible for agency staff to determine if reducing the disposal fees will increase the market share of LLRW that will be disposed at the [compact disposal facility]. The proposed rule change should not negatively affect the licensee’s revenue stream.”
From June 1 to Aug. 31 of this year, the WCS facility received 5,227 cubic feet of low-level radioactive waste from out-of-compact states and 1,887 cubic feet from compact members. Both figures are well over double the amounts from the prior reporting period, covering March 1 to May 31, 2018.
The West Texas site competes against three other commercial low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities: EnergySolutions’ operations in Clive, Utah, and Barnwell, S.C.; and a US Ecology site in Washington state. The Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site also houses a facility for disposal of low-level and mixed-low-level wastes from the Energy and Defense departments.
The fee reductions are one aspect of Waste Control Specialists’ program to increase its business. The company is also seeking a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to build and operate a facility for interim storage of up to 40,000 metric tons of spent reactor fuel now stranded at nuclear power plants around the country.
Texas is an agreement state to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, meaning it has assumed most responsibility for regulation of radioactive materials within its borders. The Commission on Environmental Quality acts as the regulator for this work, including licensing.
The rulemaking is scheduled to be published in the Texas Register on Nov. 2 and then to take effect on Nov. 8.
Among other updates to the Texas Administrative Code:
- The rulemaking eliminates the annual requirement to adjust the rate for disposal of low-level radioactive waste in favor of adjustments “on an as needed basis.”
- Also removed is the provision on “extraordinary volume adjustment,” which the commission determined is “obsolete and it is no longer needed.” A number of other measures were amended for greater clarity and to remove unnecessary language.
- Licensees “shall, to the extent practical, conduct operations to minimize the introduction of residual radioactivity into the site, including the subsurface.”
