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 the rule at its Feb. 22 meeting, and the measure was posted in the March 23 edition of the Texas Register. Its effective date is Wednesday.
The commission in November 2017 published the planned rule that would cover LLRW being imported to any site other than 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. Texas and Vermont are the only members of the compact, but other states can send their waste to the WCS compact facility.
At the time, the state body proposed requiring any entity in Texas that accepts non-compact-facility waste to submit quarterly reports covering each shipment in the preceding three months. The reports would provide data including the identity of the waste generator, the name of the state in which the material originated, its activity in curies, its volume or weight, and the date and location of disposal.
During a Nov. 3-Dec. 8 comment period, Waste Control Specialists said it did not oppose the rule, while fellow radioactive waste services provider EnergySolutions backed the proposal and Nuclear Sources & Services said it did not apply to the company’s operations.
Based on the comments, the commission made a number of revisions to the measure. Along with the reduced number of mandatory reports, the updated rule would, among a list of changes: specifically exclude waste covered by existing rules on imports to the compact facility from states other than Texas and Vermont; emphasize the commission wants to know the gross volume or weight of waste; allow entities to use their own reporting forms, following authorization by the commission; and give new importers 30 days from the start of operations to seal their own agreement on the reporting mandate.
