Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
9/26/2014
The Texas Radiation Advisory Board supports Texas’ role in hosting a potential pilot interim storage facility for commercial spent nuclear fuel, according to an advisory statement the Board approved late last week. Texas, with companies likes Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County and Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiatives in Loving County, has expressed an interest in hosting an interim storage facility. The TRAB argued in its statement that due to Texas’ size, the state would most likely be exposed to the waste through its transportation to its destination regardless. And with community willingness, the state could receive some of the economic benefit from the risk. “Since the US is going to establish consolidated SNF storage facilities in the United States, transportation through Texas will occur whether a site is located in Texas or not,” the TRAB said. “Other states, including New Mexico, have already requested to be designated for these storage sites. Therefore, establishing SNF storage in Texas will not increase transportation of SNF through Texas. There is likely public support for sites in Texas, in locations where the public is already educated on radioactive waste storage and understands how safety is ensured, and where the citizens understand the financial benefits of having a storage site in their communities.” The TRAB concluded, “The TRAB believes that it is in the state’s best interest to request that Texas be considered by the Federal Government as a consolidated SNF storage site.”
Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Speaker of the House Joe Straus (R) both have voiced their support for looking at the potential of hosting an interim storage facility. Straus has asked state lawmakers to begin considering the logistics and economic impact of potentially hosting a high-level radioactive waste disposal site or interim storage facility, and Perry charged the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality to prepare a report looking at the history of spent fuel disposal and lessons-learned from previous attempts. A consent-based pilot consolidated storage facility is the preferred strategy of the Department of Energy to satisfy the nation’s spent fuel disposal needs, but due to language in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Department cannot consider other sites beyond Yucca Mountain in Nevada without Congressional approval.
TRAB Backs Sealed Source Recycling
TRAB also recommended that holders of disused sources and sealed sources be able to recycle them, rather than be forced to dispose of the material. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s current policy prohibits the recycling of disused sources, a regulation that TRAB says hurts the process of sealed source movement. “It is important that manufactures, distributers, and service companies continue to be allowed to accept and ship sources as radioactive material rather than waste, as this streamlines the process,” TRAB said. “There are significant incentives for users to recycle disused sources: it costs a lot less to recycle a source then to buy a new one, and in many cases the source can be reused in its original container. Several manufacturers have been recycling for quite a while, and have increased their efforts as of late.” TRAB expressed concern, however, that TCEQ policy inhibited recycling by saying the last beneficial user of the source must be the generator. TRAB recommended a change in the policy for last user in an effort to promote recycling.
Part of the basis of TRAB’s recommendation comes from a report from a Low-Level Radioactive Waste Forum working group released earlier this year. The report said that changes should be made to the current regulatory system in place for disused sources to incentivize licensees to reuse, recycle, or disposal the disused sources promptly. Working under a grant from National Nuclear Security Administration’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative, the group was charged with developing recommendations for improving the management of disused sealed sources that pose a threat to national security. Economic incentives would help to address the material faster, according to the report, while a lack of transportation options for the disused sources also contributed to the problem.
