Local officials last week failed to pass a resolution opposing disposal of greater than class c radioactive waste at Waste Control Specialists’ site in Andrews Texas, local media reported.
The resolution, considered during a Dec. 6 meeting of the Andrews County Commissioner’s Court, failed on a 2-2 vote. The tie vote means the local government cannot enforce the resolution, local CBS affiliate KOSA reported this week.
According to a Facebook post by the Protect the Basin interest group, Andrews County Commissioners Jeneane Anderegg and Mark Savell voted against the resolution while Commissioners Kerry Pack and Jim Waldrop supported it.
Texas has sought permission from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to store and regulate Greater Than Class C (GTCC) waste within state borders. By May 31, commission staff plan to present the NRC with a proposed rule that would allow just that. Staff previously planned to submit the proposed rule in November. They have publicly given no reason for missing that deadline.
Anderegg, the county judge pro tem while Judge Charlie Falcon is on a health-related leave of absence following a reported heart attack, did not reply to a request for comment.
David Carlson, president and chief operating officer of Waste Control Specialists, did not reply to an email seeking comment.
The resolution “comes as a surprise to WCS as we currently have no plans to bring any additional GTCC LLRW [low-level radioactive waste] to our site,” the company wrote in an unsigned statement posted Dec. 4 and Dec. 5 as an image on their X account. “Any possibility of future waste of this kind would be years away.”
According to a timeline published by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal government could finalize new rules for the handling of GTCC by May 21, 2026, though a draft rule could be out as early as the summer.
GTCC waste includes activated metals from nuclear power reactors, sealed sources, waste from manufacturing of radioisotope products, and material from DOE’s West Valley Demonstration Project cleanup in New York state. That kind of waste was supposed to go to a permanent, deep-underground disposal facility such as Yucca Mountain.
With Yucca effectively dead, some states, including Texas, seek permission to consent to near-surface storage of GTCC.
