Squabble in West Texas over stranded nuclear wastes

The debate likely won’t end soon. Leaders and influential voices in Andrews County have been lining up to support WCS. Many critics, on the other hand, want high-level waste to stay at existing sites until a better solution emerges.

This is where the plan intersects with discussions to revive Yucca Mountain as a potential long-term repository in Nevada (E&E News PM, Feb. 21). WCS sees its proposal as complementary because Andrews County would have a consolidated interim spent fuel storage facility.

Meanwhile, WCS is dealing with a proposed sale of the company as the NRC works on environmental and safety reviews for the high-level plan. NRC approval could come in 2019, meaning the site might be accepting high-level radioactive waste in 2021.

Last week, locals turned out from the county, both for and against the WCS plan. Critics also came from New Mexico and Midland, Texas, and beyond. At one point, Baltzer asked supporters to stand — and they outnumbered opponents. A separate NRC meeting was held Feb. 13 in New Mexico and another yesterday in Maryland.

Baltzer said the storage discussion is now a “national game” with national opponents.

Representatives from Beyond Nuclear and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service — both based in Maryland — were at the Andrews County meeting.

Also in town were Karen Hadden and her husband, Tom “Smitty” Smith, who had driven days earlier from Austin, Texas. She is executive director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition. He is the longtime director of Public Citizen’s Texas office.

They connected with Padilla, 28, through a local church, and she became a key face at the NRC’s Feb. 15 meeting, accompanied by her husband and young children and signs.

“She’s a gifted organizer and a really good speaker,” Smith said before the night was over…….

The waste site’s growth often is linked to Harold Simmons, a Republican donor and billionaire who essentially controlled WCS’s parent. Simmons died in 2013. He supported former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who’s now in line to be Energy secretary under Trump. While governor, Perry helped advance WCS’s work in low-level radioactive waste disposal………

Litigation over the WCS plan remains possible from some critics. Meanwhile, Hadden said other parts of the state would be vulnerable to rail lines carrying radioactive material. She would be excited the following week to see a county commission in Bexar County, which is home to San Antonio, back a resolution saying the county doesn’t support high-level waste moving through the area on the way to a site in Texas or New Mexico.

Humberto Acosta, 66, is an Andrews resident who’s been on the WCS case for a while. He’s adamant nuclear waste should stay where it is, and he said many people don’t know what’s happening. He also thinks the idea of using rail is primitive, citing derailments and track vulnerabilities……

The view from WCS

At the WCS storage site in Andrews County, the company is seeking to store potentially 40,000 metric tons of uranium over eight phases. That’s 5,000 metric tons per phase.

The NRC indicated that WCS’s interim facility, if licensed, would be authorized for an initial phase. The company would need to seek amendments to store more fuel. The waste, which might come at first from decommissioned reactor sites, would be put in storage modules on concrete pads once at the interim site, according to the NRC.

Baltzer expressed hope Congress will pass legislation to essentially fund consolidated interim storage to act as a supplement to Yucca Mountain. Once a permanent spot is open, he said, waste could be sent to that location. WCS has said high-level waste might remain at its site for 40 to 100 years, while some critics say it would be there indefinitely.

Meanwhile, a top lobbyist for WCS said he’s eager to work with Rep. John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican who’s crafting nuclear waste legislation, and a quartet of bipartisan senators to ensure the Texas facility plays a key role under the Trump administration.

Shimkus is hoping to move a bill through the House by mid-August that would address issues related to Yucca Mountain as well as interim storage. Finding common ground on the latter is what Tim Smith, the WCS lobbyist, hopes to accomplish. He’s looking for WCS to advance as the Yucca Mountain process continues.

“The million-dollar question is, probably: What is the linkage between interim storage and Yucca Mountain?” Smith said.

For WCS, a key part of the strategy is authorizing language to clarify the Energy secretary’s authority to take possession of nuclear waste from a private facility for interim storage. Smith also is looking to convince newcomers at the Department of Energy that private facilities can move at a faster clip than the federal bureaucracy……..

While WCS previously indicated it would stick with low-level facilities, the CEO has said the company solicited feedback from the area after a blue ribbon commission saw a possible role for an interim storage facility that’s now proposed.

The role Perry may play in aiding WCS isn’t clear in many people’s minds in Andrews County. Texas legislation during Perry’s tenure as governor helped WCS cultivate its low-level radioactive waste disposal operations. Perry also signed a letter in 2014 describing a potential role for high-level radioactive waste in the state.

Perry saw significant support from Simmons, according to Andrew Wheat, research director at Texans for Public Justice, which tracks money in politics. He said Simmons personally donated about $1.2 million to Perry’s various gubernatorial campaigns.

“Rick Perry was our longest-serving governor in Texas history, and he developed, I think, a well-earned reputation for running a crony capitalist administration,” Wheat said.

Now, with Perry expected to head up DOE, WCS “is again looking like it’s in the catbird seat,” Wheat said……..