Waste Control Specialists

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., anticipates receiving about 300 shipments during the 12 months from February 2018 and February 2019. That’s according to slides shared by Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader at the Waste Management Symposium last month in Phoenix, Ariz. During this period, DOE and WIPP management […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 64 shipments of transuranic waste from Jan. 1 through March 21, 2018, according to the latest publicly available data. Of the shipments received by March 21, 48 came from the Idaho National Laboratory. The remaining 16 were split evenly between the Oak Ridge National […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 60 shipments of transuranic waste in just over the first two-and-a-half months of 2018, according to the latest publicly available data. Of the shipments received by March 18, 44 came from the Idaho National Laboratory. The remaining 16 were split evenly between the Oak […]

It could take some time for the Energy Department to decide how to handle 113 drums of inappropriately remediated nitrate salts stored at a privately operated disposal site in Texas, a senior DOE official said last week. The waste originated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which as of this month has […]

Nuclear services provider EnergySolutions supports allowing use of nuclear power plant decommissioning trust funds for certain operations even before the facility ceases operation, an executive said last week. “We are very supportive of using the decommissioning funds early for legitimate decommissioning activities at nuclear power plants,” Daniel Shrum, senior vice president for regulatory affairs at […]

The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission has approved a revised rule aimed at providing additional information about low-level waste being imported into the state. Among the changes to the original proposal, waste disposal providers covered by the rule are now only required to issue semiannual reports on their operations. The commission voted on […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Orano USA and Waste Control Specialists (WCS) are just weeks from formalizing their partnership to license, build, and operate a facility for centralized interim storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel, new WCS CEO Scott State said Monday. The joint venture, announced last week, will be called Interim Storage Partners. Its first job […]

By John Stang Valhi Inc. apparently kept former subsidiary Waste Control Specialists financially afloat with money borrowed from one of its other businesses over a number of years, according to the holding company’s latest 10-K document. The same March 15 filing with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission also said Valhi believes it will be in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s proposed fiscal 2019 budget provides enough funding for staff to review two applications to build facilities for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel, commission members assured a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) raised the question during the panel’s oversight hearing on the […]

Orano and Waste Control Specialists (WCS) are just weeks from formalizing their partnership to license, build, and operate a facility for centralized interim storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel, new WCS CEO Scott State said this week. The joint venture, announced last week, will be called Interim Storage Partners. Its first job will be to […]

Holding company Valhi Inc. apparently kept former subsidiary Waste Control Specialists financially afloat with money borrowed from one of its other subsidiaries, according to the holding company’s 10-K document filed Thursday. The same filing with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission also said Valhi believes it will be in better financial shape following its sale of […]

Nearly a year after putting it on ice, Waste Control Specialists aims to revive its application for a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to build and operate a facility for consolidated interim storage of used nuclear reactor fuel. It is doing so in a joint venture planned with Orano USA, the nuclear services and technology […]

By John Stang Complications in waste treatment operations and closure costs of a facility in Tennessee trimmed Perma-Fix Environmental Services’ revenue and produced an operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2017. However, executives said the company’s outlook is strong in 2018 as it vies for new government and commercial contracts and looks toward a potential […]

Former Waste Control Specialists President and CEO Rod Baltzer has opened a new consulting firm, and is not straying far from his specialty in low-level radioactive waste disposal. “I haven’t Tweeted in a while, but wanted you to know I have started a consulting firm since leaving WCS,” Baltzer said in a March 2 message […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has less than $500,000 left in its available balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund, which pays for the agency’s work on the proposed Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository in Nevada. In its latest update to Congress on activities related to licensing of Yucca Mountain, the NRC said its unobligated Nuclear […]

By John Stang The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission should extend its public scoping comment period on a proposed spent reactor fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico to allow the state’s Legislature and public agencies to review and comment on the project, New Mexico lawmakers said recently. In a series of identical Feb. 27 letters, […]

Former Waste Control Specialists President and CEO Rod Baltzer has opened a new consulting firm, and is not straying far from his specialty in low-level radioactive waste disposal. “I haven’t Tweeted in a while, but wanted you to know I have started a consulting firm since leaving WCS,” Baltzer said in a March 2 message […]

During the first month-and-a-half of operations in 2018, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 30 shipments of transuranic waste, with two-thirds of them coming from the Idaho National Laboratory. That comes out to an average of almost five shipments per week over a six-week period. In addition to 20 shipments […]

Former Waste Control Specialists President and CEO Rod Baltzer said Friday he has opened a new consulting firm, and is not straying far from his specialty in low-level radioactive waste disposal. “I haven’t Tweeted in a while, but wanted you to know I have started a consulting firm since leaving WCS,” Baltzer said in a […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday said it would conduct a full technical review of Holtec International’s application for a license to build and operate an interim spent-fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The Camden, N.J.-based energy technology company filed its application on March 30, 2017, for authorization to store as much as […]

A panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine kicked off two days of public meetings in Richland, Wash., on Wednesday as it studies supplemental processing of low-activity waste at the U.S. Energy Department’s nearby Hanford Site. The data gathering will culminate in several reports by the National Academies on treatment of low-activity […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday said it would conduct a full technical review of Holtec International’s application for a license to build an interim spent-fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The Camden, N.J.-based energy technology company filed its application on March 30, 2017, for authorization to store as much as 8,680 metric […]

The executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will retire in April after more than four years on the job. The state agency did not say whether Richard Hyde would be replaced on an interim basis. The commission is the state regulator for the Waste Control Specialists site in Andrews County, one of […]

The Utah House of Representatives this week passed legislation that would reduce radioactive waste disposal fees paid by EnergySolutions by more than $1.7 million annually. The bill from Rep. John Knotwell (R) would cut the flat fee paid by radioactive waste disposal facilities in the state by the amount they paid in taxes in the […]

By John Stang A week after announcing that private-equity firm J.F. Lehman had acquired Waste Control Specialists (WCS), the companies are largely closed-mouth about details of the deal. The involved parties – Lehman, WCS, and former owner Valhi Inc. – announced the sale in three separate press releases after market close on Friday, Jan. 26. […]

By John Stang A week after announcing that private-equity firm J.F. Lehman had acquired Waste Control Specialists (WCS), the companies are largely closed-mouth about details of the deal. The involved parties – Lehman, WCS, and former owner Valhi Inc. – announced the sale in three separate press releases after market close on Friday, Jan. 26. […]

Months after a federal court blocked its last merger attempt, Waste Control Specialists (WCS) announced Friday that it has a new owner: private equity firm J.F. Lehman & Co. The sale from holding company Valhi was made public after market close. The Lehman affiliate JFL-WCS Partners LLC is now the owner of a 14,900-acre complex in Andrews […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 133 shipments of transuranic waste from around the DOE complex during 2017, exceeding its own target since resuming waste emplacement. Last March, during a WIPP Town Hall meeting, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader publicly identified a target of 128 shipments from April […]

Staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission aims by the end of February to decide whether to move forward with a full technical review of Holtec International’s license application for a consolidated interim spent fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The regulator has been conducting its acceptance review since the New Jersey energy technology […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is waiting to see whether the Department of Energy will issue a topical safety analysis report (TSAR) on temporary storage of spent commercial nuclear reactor fuel, officials said last week. The TSAR would be expected to address technical issues with consolidated interim storage of used fuel, which could be important […]