March 17, 2014

NO LLRW EXPORT BAN FOR TEXAS COMPACT GENERATORS

By ExchangeMonitor

Waste Control Specialists was unsuccessful in persuading the Texas Compact Commission to block export of Class A radioactive waste from Texas and Vermont at the commission’s meeting Friday in Austin, Texas. The Commission voted 5-2 to extend export approval for the South Texas Project, Luminant Energy and Entergy Vermont Yankee for four months—to September 19—though the generator had asked for an extension through the rest of 2012. The extension punts down the road an eventual decision on whether export of Class A out of the compact, usually to EnergySolutions’ Clive, Utah disposal facility, will be allowed to continue once WCS is operational, now estimated to be sometime in April.

The three generators—the largest in the compact—appealed to the commission for extensions to their export permits through the rest of the calendar year. If export was not allowed, they told the commission they would be forced to store Class A waste on-site. In addition to the fact that WCS is not yet open, the generators cited the fact that rates at WCS won’t be determined until the conclusion of a contested rate hearing, a one-year process that has not yet begun. Also, generators told the commission at the meeting last week, Texas state regulators have not finalized a rule on how much incidentally commingled waste will be allowed to return to the Compact after they send waste to be processed. Until the commingling rule is finalized and/or WCS provides comparable processing and volume-reducing technologies at its site, the generators argued it was unfair to force them to store waste on-site, or pay eight to 10 times their normal rate to dispose of Class A materials at WCS. “We don’t have the information we need to make these decisions yet, with costs uncertain and the commingling rule uncertain,” Rene Ruiz with the South Texas Project, said at the meeting.

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