Waste Control Specialists

The parent company of Waste Control Specialists (WCS) on Tuesday suggested deep doubts about the likelihood of securing a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to build and operate an interim spent fuel storage facility for spent reactor fuel. The statement from holding company Valhi Inc. comes as its subsidiary is said to be wrestling with ongoing […]

The parent company of Waste Control Specialists (WCS) on Tuesday suggested deep doubts about the likelihood of securing a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to build and operate an interim storage facility for spent reactor fuel. Dallas-based WCS in April asked the federal agency to temporarily suspend review of the application for a facility designed to […]

The bench trial over EnergySolutions’ planned $367 million acquisition of waste management rival Waste Control Specialists ended Friday in U.S. District Court in Delaware. Senior Judge Sue Robinson indicated she intends to rule on the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against the merger ahead of her retirement next month, Law 360 reported. The DOJ’s closing […]

There is no funding for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada in the omnibus appropriations bill Congress passed this week to keep the Energy Department and the rest of the federal government funded through September. The bill was awaiting President Donald Trump’s signature on Friday afternoon. The Trump administration wants to restart […]

Low-level radioactive waste disposal providers EnergySolutions and Waste Control Specialists are each other’s top rivals, and their merger would undermine competition in dozens of states, the Department of Justice said Monday in the opening day of the federal antitrust trial against the deal. The bench trial in U.S. District Court in Delaware is scheduled to last […]

The trial over the Department of Justice’s civil antitrust lawsuit seeking to block EnergySolutions’ $367 million acquisition of Waste Control Specialists (WCS) began Monday in federal court. The proceedings are scheduled to last two weeks and will be overseen by Senior U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson. Justice filed the lawsuit in November in the U.S. […]

Holtec International said last week it is moving into the second phase of its application for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to build and operate a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The first phase wrapped up March 31 with the submission of the application. The NRC is now conducting a 60-day […]

Waste Control Specialists on Tuesday requested a temporary suspension of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission review of the company’s license application for a consolidated interim spent nuclear fuel storage site in West Texas. The Dallas-based waste management provider said the licensing process currently is an “unsupportable” financial burden as it seeks to wrap up its merger with […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving quickly to meet Waste Control Specialists’ request that the agency suspend review of its license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage site in West Texas. “As requested by WCS, the staff is taking the appropriate actions to properly suspend its review and contract support.  Managers are working with […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a two-month extension to the deadline for stakeholders to request intervention or a hearing in Waste Control Specialists’ license application to build and operate an interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in West Texas. The deadline has been shifted from March 31 to May 31, according to an NRC […]

Transuranic waste from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has landed at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., for the first time in more than three years. The material – clothing, tools, rags, residues, debris, and other material contaminated with trace amounts of plutonium – arrived last week for permanent disposal at […]

Waste Control Specialists CEO and President Rod Baltzer is defending the prospect for shipping nuclear waste to the company’s planned interim storage site in West Texas, pointing to clean safety records and extreme tests that ensure the durability of transportation casks. Transportation has been a highly contentious topic in WCS’ proposal to build and operate a […]

For the first time in three years, the Energy Department has sent shipments of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico for permanent disposal. Shipments from separate DOE facilities either arrived at WIPP or departed for it this week. One shipment arrived early Monday from the Idaho National Laboratory, while another […]

Dallas County on Tuesday became the latest Texas jurisdiction to wade into the debate over plans to store up to 40,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel in the far west of the state. The county Commissioners Court approved a resolution expressing opposition to transportation of high-level waste, including used reactor fuel, by rail or road […]

The Dallas County Commissioners Court on Tuesday formally opposed transport of high-level radioactive waste through the jurisdiction on its way to a planned storage facility in West Texas. Instead, the spent nuclear reactor fuel should be kept at its points of origin around the nation until a permanent repository is built, according to the resolution, […]

A handful of cities and counties in Texas have started speaking out against the potential for nuclear waste to roll through their territory on the way to a planned storage site in the far west of the state. Waste Control Specialists is about a year into the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing process for an Andrews County […]

The United Kingdom as of April 1, 2016, held 4.6 million cubic meters of radioactive waste and expects to produce at least another 170,000 cubic meters through the year 2125, according to the government’s latest accounting. The current and future stockpile of 4.77 million cubic meters, covering all wastes after packaging, does not include 1 […]

The Department of Energy has applied for a 20-year renewal of the license for storage in Idaho of debris from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, according to documents made public Tuesday. The regulator issued the license for Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) on March 19, 1999. […]

Waste Control Specialists has filed its last updates with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the company’s license application to build and operate an interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel, CEO Rod Baltzer said Wednesday. That wraps up the Dallas-based company’s responses to the regulator’s request for additional information to the application filed last April, Baltzer […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Monday expressed no objection to a 60-day extension for affected parties to request a hearing on Waste Control Specialists’ license application to build and operate a storage facility for spent nuclear reactor fuel. Staff, though, opposed a 120-day extension sought by a coalition of 20 environmental and anti-nuclear organizations. There was […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Monday expressed no objection to a 60-day extension for affected parties to request a hearing on Waste Control Specialists’ license application to build and operate a storage facility for spent nuclear reactor fuel. Staff, though, opposed a 120-day extension sought by a coalition of 20 environmental and anti-nuclear organizations. There was […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet on April 6 to take additional public input on the scope of an environmental impact statement (EIS) for a planned interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in West Texas. Waste Control Specialists last April submitted a license application for a facility with a capacity to hold 40,000 metric tons […]

New Energy Secretary Rick Perry this week found himself on the pointy end of a lawsuit from the state he once led, which is demanding that the federal government halt all work on consent-based siting of U.S. nuclear waste and instead complete licensing of the Yucca Mountain geologic repository. The lawsuit filed late Tuesday by […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has extended to April 28 the public comment period on the scope of an environmental impact statement (EIS) for a planned nuclear waste storage site in West Texas. However, the commission has not yet ruled on requests from nearly two dozen organizations for more time to request hearings or intervene in the license […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet on April 6 to get additional public input on the scope of an environmental impact statement (EIS) for a planned interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in West Texas. Waste Control Specialists last April submitted a license application for a facility with a capacity to hold 40,000 metric tons […]

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. We’ll check in with one long, big-picture update every 25 days, with a regular flow of updates in between to keep you up to date on news affecting Department of Energy […]

PHOENIX — The first three sites to ship transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico will be privately operated Waste Control Specialists of Andrews, Texas, and the Department of Energy’s Idaho and Savannah River sites, a senior DOE official said here Monday. The department has not yet decided which of those […]

  PHOENIX — The Los Alamos National Laboratory expects next month to begin treating 60 drums that contain a combustible mix of nitrate salts and kitty litter like the one that burst open and released a small amount of radiation into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in 2014, officials said here Monday. The incident closed the transuranic […]

PHOENIX — Waste Control Specialists and the Department of Energy are negotiating an extension of the contract for the company’s continued storage of transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a WCS executive said Tuesday. The current contract expires on March 31. WCS’ Andrews County, Texas, waste storage facility has held more […]

PHOENIX — The first three sites to ship transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico will be privately operated Waste Control Specialists of Andrews, Texas; the Idaho National Laboratory, and the Savannah River National Laboratory, a senior DOE official said here Monday. DOE has not yet decided which of those […]