A new buyer for Waste Control Specialists is expected to be announced this month, President and CEO Rod Baltzer said Monday.
Baltzer mentioned the timeline during a presentation at the Nuclear Decommissioning and Used Fuel Strategy Summit in Charlotte, N.C., according to multiple industry representatives who were in attendance. The conference was closed to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
While Baltzer did not discuss details of the anticipated deal, one source at the conference said the buyer is rumored to be New York City-based nuclear decommissioning specialist NorthStar Group Services.
Representatives for both Waste Control Specialists and NorthStar did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists is owned by holding company Valhi Inc., which said in a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it has been seeking a new buyer for its financially troubled subsidiary after a federal judge in June blocked a $367 million acquisition by nuclear services provider EnergySolutions, of Salt Lake City. U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson ruled in favor of the Justice Department’s antitrust case that the merger would create an unfair monopoly in the low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) disposal market.
EnergySolutions and WCS operate three of the four U.S. disposal sites for that class of waste. The other is owned by U.S. Ecology.
Waste Control Specialists’ primary asset is its disposal complex in Andrews County, Texas, which is licensed for storage of LLRW and various other waste types. The company hopes to build a facility for interim storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel there, though its license application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is currently on hold.
