Waste Control Specialists has asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to confirm that certain prior directions on requirements for disposal of very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW) do not apply to its operation in West Texas.
The federal agency’s 2016 regulatory issue summary on VLLW disposal (RIS 2016-11), along with its communication last year with the operator of a Texas nuclear power plant, “have generated confusion among WCS utility customers,” according to the Dallas-based company.
“The foregoing NRC statements are making some utility licensees reluctant to use WCS for VLLW disposal due to a misconception that those statements in RIS 2016-11 are applicable to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) regulatory process that governs the WCS VLLW disposal process,” President and Chief Operating Officer David Carlson wrote in a July 17 letter to John Lubinski, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
Carlson asked Lubinski to confirm Waste Control Specialists’ understanding in a written response to last month’s letter. In an Aug. 1 letter to Carlson, Lubinski said the NRC is evaluating the request and would respond “once we have evaluated the information you provided.”
Very low-level waste is an informal term for material that retains some level of residual radioactivity, encompassing naturally occurring radionuclides, according to the NRC. It is the lowest portion of Class A low-level radioactive waste, which is already the least hazardous classification. Very low-level material is considered safe for disposal in landfills used for hazardous or municipal solid waste.
Waste Control Specialists operates a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act-compliant cell on its Andrews County property authorized to hold VLLW waste with up to 10% of the radionuclide concentration of the limit for Class A waste. That covers material from decommissioning of nuclear power plants, including concrete, soil, and other lightly contaminated very low-level waste.
The NRC’s November 2016 regulatory issue summary corrected what the agency said was an error in a 1986 document regarding applications for disposal of low-level waste. Specifically, the agency determined that under federal regulations for alternative disposal of radioactive materials, “any licensee’s request for approval to dispose of licensed material under 10 CFR 20.2002, or the equivalent Agreement State regulations, must be submitted to the regulatory authority that issued the license for use of the radioactive material.”
For nuclear power plant licensees, that would be the NRC rather than Texas or any of the other agreement states to the agency that have assumed much of the responsibility for oversight of byproduct materials within their borders.
The NRC reaffirmed that position in an Oct. 31, 2018, letter to the head of the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Co. regarding disposal of very low-level waste at an industrial landfill in the state. The federal regulator must authorize the company to dispose of VLLW, even at an exempt facility in Texas, according to Craig Erlanger, director of the NRC’s Division of Operating Reactor Licensing.
That facility was not a Waste Control Specialists site. The primary issue, according to the company, is that the NRC directives apply to facilities that are not specifically licensed for disposal of radioactive materials. But that is not the case for the Andrews County operation.
Operating within an NRC agreement state, Waste Control Specialists is regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The state entity has authorized disposal of exempted radioactive waste at WCS via the company’s radioactive material license and hazardous waste permit, Carlson wrote.
Texas has not established a rule that corresponds to the federal regulation on alternative disposal of radioactive waste, which is not mandatory. But Waste Control Specialists is required to conduct analytical measurements, radiation surveys, or both, to ensure waste shipped for disposal meets exemption directives under its state radioactive material license.
“Therefore, it is our understanding and conclusion that RIS-2016-11 is not applicable to the exemption structure at the WCS facility, as any transfer of radioactive waste is accomplished before the waste is processed and evaluated for exemption,” Carlson wrote. “Thus, a utility need not obtain any NRC approval under 10 CFR 20.2002, because the exemption occurs separate from the transfer and acceptance of the waste for disposal.”
