The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Wednesday approved reductions for various fees for disposal of low-level radioactive waste in the state.
The fee revisions are part of a broader rulemaking, which also updates language in several state regulations and requires licensees to minimize introduction of residual radioactivity at the site. It was approved with little discussion by the two current commissioners.
The rate changes apply to waste shipped to the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact facility, which is owned by the state and operated by Waste Control Specialists at its disposal complex in Andrews County. The facility was established primarily to take waste from the members of the compact – currently Texas and Vermont – but accepts material from all generators willing to pay the fees.
The fee changes are aimed to drive up business for Waste Control Specialists, which in recent years lost millions of dollars for then-owner Valhi Inc. The company was sold in January to private equity firm J.F. Lehman & Co.
The rulemaking sets a consistent charge of $100 per cubic foot for disposal of Class A low-level waste, eliminating a separate fee of $180 per cubic foot for shielded material. Also gone is the $350 per cubic foot charge for disposal of untreated biological waste.
Under radioactivity charges, the commission reduced the curie inventory charge from $0.55 to $0.40 per millicurie and scrapped charges for carbon-14 and special nuclear material.
The disposal surcharge for containers weighing 10,000 pounds to 50,000 pounds was similarly eliminated, along with three dose rate surcharges and a cask-handling surcharge of $2,500 per container.
Gross receipt fees on low-level radioactive waste generated $26 million in fiscal 2017, according to the rulemaking document.
The rulemaking is scheduled to be published in the Texas Register on Nov. 2 and then to take effect on Nov. 8.
