A new Texas ban on high-level nuclear waste could be “potentially quite a playing field for lawyers coming up,” a member of an interstate nuclear waste compact told a citizens advisory panel in Vermont recently.
The Lone Star state put the anti-nuclear-waste law on the books earlier this month and now, Austin and Washington must “sort out just who has ultimate say” over interim storage in the state, Peter Bradford, a commissioner with the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission, told the Vermont Citizens’ Decommissioning Advisory Panel.
Bradford spoke during a Sep. 20 meeting, during which the advisory panel heard the latest drama about the proposed Interim Storage Partners (ISP) consolidated interim storage facility planned for Andrews, Texas. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensed the site Sep. 14, but Texas politicians have vowed to fight WCS’ plans to add a spent-fuel storage depot to its existing low-level waste-disposal site in the southwest of the state.
ISP is a joint venture by Waste Control Specialists (WCS) and Orano USA. The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station is being decommissioned by NorthStar.
Vermont and Texas already participate in an interstate compact agreement for low-level nuclear waste, under which low-level waste from Vermont is to WCS.
Meanwhile, NorthStar told the citizens panel Sep. 20 that decommissioning at Vermont Yankee is proceeding ahead of schedule. The company has said it could finish the job by 2026.
The advisory panel created a federal waste nuclear policy subcommittee in December to advise the state and federal government on disposal policy. The subcommittee said in February that it would provide its recommendations in the fall if it could come to a cogent policy position by then.
