Waste Control Specialists on Sunday noted a slowdown in shipments from some customers during the COVID-19 crisis, but said its disposal facility in Texas remains open for business.
The drawdown of some federal facilities to essential operations “has delayed some planned waste shipments,” President and Chief Operating Officer David Carlson told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing by email. “A few other nuclear sites have also delayed some activities. However WCS remains fully operational and continues to receive [low-level radioactive waste] by rail and by truck every day.”
Carlson did not discuss specifics of the government and commercial sites, or the impact on WCS’ business.
Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists operates four distinct waste disposal facilities on its nearly 1,400-acre complex in Andrews County, along the Texas-New Mexico border. The Federal Waste Facility is dedicated to accepting Class A, B, and C low-level radioactive waste and mixed-low-level waste from the federal government. The company also takes low-level waste from Texas, Vermont, and other states at the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact facility.
In a March 31 letter to customers, WCS Senior Vice President for Business Development Dan Burns said the company’s “business is being significantly impacted by the coronavirus health emergency.” He noted that Waste Control Specialists is able to maintain complete operations under the Homeland Security Department’s designation for critical infrastructure.
The Texas operation is one of four licensed commercial facilities for disposal of low-level waste around the United States.
US Ecology, which owns a rival facility at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, in March said it would cut some costs this year to compensate for economic uncertainty created by the pandemic. The measures include a 30% reduction in capital expenditures for 2020, worth up to $30 million in savings, and $15 million to $20 million in unspecified “cost control initiatives.”
