The Texas county that hosts Waste Control Specialists’ radioactive waste disposal site this week banned storage of Greater-Than-Class-C in the county, setting up a roadblock to putting such material in the company’s facility.
The Andrews County Commissioner’s Court unanimously approved a resolution containing the ban, according to a press release by the interest group Protect the Basin. According to a Court notice, the commissioners considered the resolution on Tuesday.
The commission approved the resolution weeks after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff said they could unveil this spring new details about a coming rule to allow for disposal of Greater-Than-Class-C (GTCC) waste in near-surface facilities, such as the one Waste Control Specialists operates.
Under the current rules, GTCC waste has to go to a deep-geologic repository, such as the proposed but unbuilt Yucca Mountain facility in Nye County, Nev. GTCC waste, a regulatory class of low-level waste, includes the insides of nuclear reactor vessels, among other things.
The NRC has mulled changes to its GTCC rule for nearly a decade. Texas in 2015 asked the commission whether states that have federal permission to act as their own nuclear regulator may take custody of GTCC waste. Texas is among the states that, under an agreement with NRC, enforces nuclear regulations that are at least as strict as NRC’s.
The Lone Star state owns a near-surface disposal site at the Waste Control Specialists’ Andrews campus, which the company operates for the state.
NRC staff said in January that their proposed GTCC rule, which also would include changes for other types of low-level waste, should go to the commission by May. A final rule might appear by November 2025.
