The window is rapidly closing for a proposed bill that would ban the storage of high-level nuclear waste in Texas after a week of floor meetings in the state’s Senate ended without a vote on the measure.
Despite appearing on the regular order of business for the full chamber, S.B. 1046, sponsored by state Sen. Brian Birdwell (R), didn’t get a vote at Thursday’s session. The bill doesn’t appear on the state Senate’s “notice of intent” for Friday’s meeting. S.B. 1046 is the state Senate-side version of H.B. 2692, introduced in March by state Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R).
Besides banning storage of high-level waste in the Lone Star, the bills would attempt to make Texas’ fees for low-level waste disposal more competitive through an interstate cost-analysis program that would form the basis of rebates to generators.
Even if the Senate-side version of Landgraf’s bill passes, it would have to be passed by the House by May 21 before it could be signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott (R), according to the legislature’s calendar.
If the bill doesn’t make it through both chambers by May 31, when the current session of the Texas legislature is scheduled to end, it could be a while before Landgraf gets another chance to change the state’s radioactive waste policies.
Texas’ legislature meets only every two years, and it’s not scheduled to gavel in for another regular session until January 2023.
The state Senate is the last hope for the radioactive waste bill because Thursday was the last day the chamber could consider House bills, and Landgraf’s legislation got booted back to committee last week after another lawmaker took issue with the legislative analysis that accompanied the legislation.
On May 5, H.B. 2692 was sent back to the state House’s environmental regulation committee after getting yanked from the full chamber. That day, state Rep. Tom Craddick (R) moved to halt debate on the bill, arguing that the accompanying legislative analysis wasn’t clear enough about parts of the bill that appeared to repeal sections from the Texas health and safety code that regulated state contracts with radioactive waste disposal providers.
The controversy over Landgraf’s bill comes as Waste Control Specialists is looking to expand its existing low-level waste disposal facility in Andrews County, Texas — part of Landgraf’s district — to include an interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing the company’s license application for the project. The agency is currently working on an environmental impact statement for the proposed site, which they’ve said won’t be finished until the summer.
