The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday affirmed that directives in recent years regarding disposal of very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW) do not apply to a facility operated by Waste Control Specialists (WCS) on its West Texas property.
John Lubinski, director of the agency’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, was responding to a July 17 letter from WCS President and Chief Operating Officer David Carlson.
In that letter, Carlson said an NRC regulatory issue summary from 2016 and a 2018 enforcement action for the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Co. had led to reluctance among certain utilities to send their very low-level waste for disposal at WCS’ Resource Conservation and Recovery Act cell.
The issue at hand is disposal of low-level radioactive waste by NRC licensees at an unlicensed facility that is not covered by low-level waste disposal rules from an agreement state to the federal agency, according to a return letter Monday from Lubinski to Carlson. However, Waste Control Specialists is regulated under the 1954 Atomic Energy Act, Texas’ agreement with the NRC, and the state’s equivalent rules to federal regulations on low-level waste disposal, the NRC official noted.
Texas and the 37 other agreement states to the NRC assume a significant portion of responsibility for licensing and regulation of radioactive materials within their borders. For the Lone Star State, that includes Waste Control Specialists.
“Please feel free to share this letter with any of your utility customers with questions about … the permissible transfer of licensed material for disposal,” Lubinski wrote to Carlson.
The 2016 regulatory issue summary was the subject of a Sept. 6 meeting between NRC officials and nuclear industry representatives including Waste Control Specialists, EnergySolutions, the Nuclear Energy Institute, and the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Co.
