By Wayne Barber
The opinion detailing the reasoning for a federal judge’s June 21 ruling blocking the $367 million merger of Waste Control Specialists and EnergySolutions had not been made public by Friday, a week after the companies walked away from the deal.
The office of Judge Sue L. Robinson, of U.S. District Court for Delaware, said last week a redacted version of the opinion was scheduled to be posted by Wednesday, July 28. The document remained unavailable by deadline Friday, as did a “Response to Order” filed with the court on Wednesday.
Last week, Robinson issued an order that “enjoined and restrained” Salt Lake City-based nuclear services provider EnergySolutions from buying its Dallas-based rival, which operates a West Texas complex for storage of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) and other waste forms. The order followed a 10-day antitrust trial that ended May 5, in which the Justice Department argued that the merger would undermine competition and raise costs for LLRW disposal customers in 36 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.
WCS parent Valhi Inc. said on June 23 it disagreed with the decision but that the companies would not appeal the decision to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. One day earlier, Andrews County Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Valhi, provided written notice to Rockwell Holdco Inc., the parent company of EnergySolutions, terminating the purchase agreement for the sale.
During the past week, representatives of both WCS and EnergySolutions declined to comment about how exactly the deal might be unwound and how the two companies – market rivals and sometime legal foes – might go forward in the future.
Waste Control Specialists has sought to develop an interim spent fuel storage site in Andrews County, which could accommodate spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors. Legislation now being considered in Congress would allow the federal government to contract for one such interim storage facility even before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission makes a final ruling on a permanent repository for the spent fuel.
However, WCS in April asked the NRC to suspend review of its application, pending completion of the merger.
Whether WCS will now move forward with the spent fuel storage project, much less survive, remains an open question. During his closing arguments at the antitrust trial, attorney Van Beckwith said the company’s financial troubles are so deep that it could be forced to close and cover the waste site if the merger did not happen.
