Perma-Fix Environmental Services has applied for a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ship low-level radioactive waste back to Mexico after treatment.
The two-reactor Laguna Verde nuclear power plant near Veracruz is expected to send radioactively contaminated metals, wood, paper, concrete, and other materials for treatment and processing at Perma-Fix facilities in Richland, Wash., and Kingston, Tenn.
The export license would cover as much as 650,000 kilograms of thermal treatment residues, stabilized or solidified wastes or “size-reduced metals” that could not be recycled, according to an Aug. 30 letter from Tammy Monday, vice president for waste services sales and business development at the Atlanta-based waste management provider, to David Skeen, deputy director of the NRC’s Office of International Programs.
“Although, waste classification does not apply to the waste streams managed under this export license the waste streams are equivalent to Class A, B and C” low-level radioactive waste, the export application says.
The material would be shipped by truck back through the port of exit at Laredo, Texas, for storage and eventual disposal in Mexico.
There was no immediate word Wednesday on the timeline for an NRC decision on the export license. Shipments are scheduled to begin no sooner than Dec. 1 of this year and to continue up to Nov. 25, 2023, according to the application.
The NRC on Wednesday issued a notice in the Federal Register opening the proceeding for public comment and requests for a hearing or intervention through Nov. 23. Comments can be submitted at www.regulations.gov, Docket ID NRC-2012-7946; by email to [email protected]; by fax to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 301-415-1101; by mail to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C., 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff; or in person at NRC headquarters, 11555 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Md.
