The executives of a Texas county picked to host an interim storage facility voted to officially oppose the site’s licensing after a widely-attended and sometimes emotional public hearing this week.
The Andrews County, Texas Commissioners’ Court voted unanimously Thursday to pen a letter of resolution opposing Interim Storage Partners’ proposed interim storage site, currently undergoing a federal licensing review. The Court will write the letter and “most likely” sign it next week, county Judge Charlie Falcon said at the meeting, held in person and carried remotely by webcast.
Interim Storage Partners, a joint venture between Dallas-based Waste Control Specialist (WCS) and French nuclear services company Orano, is looking to build a high-level waste site at WCS’s existing low-level waste storage facility in Andrews County.
Dozens of Andrews County residents, local stakeholders and several WCS staff spoke before the Commissioner’s Court at Thursday’s meeting. The community expressed concerns about the safety and environmental risks of a high-level waste repository, and voiced the oft-repeated complaint that spent fuel stored at an interim storage facility could overstay its welcome.
“We’re talking about spent fuel rods that are coming out here, and there’s no plan to ever move them,” said Tommy Tyler, assistant general manager of Fasken Oil and Ranch, a perennial opponent of Texas interim storage. “This is going to become the de facto permanent repository,” Tyler said.
WCS president David Carlson, also speaking at the meeting, tried to allay some of those concerns.
“There is no safety or environmental issue,” Carlson said. “There’s recently been misleading statements about the safety of WCS in general. Many of these are not based on facts that are actually related to our site,” Carlson said.
“WCS has proven to be a good citizen for many years,” Carlson said, “and I believe our actions — whether it’s in relation to safety, whether it’s in relation to community involvement or communication — speak louder than words.”
Speaking before the motion for a vote was called, Falcon cautioned Andrews residents that the commission’s resolution may not stop the ISP site from getting a license but will add the county to the project’s growing list of opponents.
“I’d like to remind everybody that if a resolution in opposition is signed, that is not a guarantee from the United States government,” Falcon said. “ We would join the governor who is opposed to it. We would join [Rep.] August Pfluger [R-Texas], our U.S. representative, and [state Rep.] Brooks Landgraf.”
State Rep. Landgraf (R), who represents Andrews County, proposed in March a bill that would have banned the storage of high-level nuclear waste in Texas. After a parliamentary row in Austin, the bill was kicked back into committee and remained there until the end of the state House session at the end of May.
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is working on an environmental impact statement for the proposed Interim Storage Partners site. NRC has said that the environmental review, necessary for licensing, should be ready in the next couple of weeks. Agency chair Christopher Hanson told members of Congress Wednesday that a final licensing decision for the site would come down in September.
