The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission has proposed a new rule intended to give it more information about imports of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) into the state.
The update to the Texas Administrative Code would cover all such waste that is not destined for disposal at the “Compact Facility” – the state-owned site operated by Waste Control Specialists on its West Texas property for disposal of Class A, B, and C low-level radioactive waste.
The “Commission has determined that it is in the public interest that it gather information regarding low-level radioactive waste that enters the host state irrespective of whether it requires an agreement for importation for disposal at the Compact Facility,” the commission said in a Nov. 3 notice in the Texas Register. The proposed new rule “seeks to facilitate the gathering of information by the way of reporting requirements after the entry of the low-level waste into the state rather than requiring approval for the importation of certain categories or low-level radioactive waste into the host state.”
If the rule is approved, LLRW importers in Texas would be required to submit quarterly reports to the commission with data on each shipment including the identity of the waste generator, the waste activity in curies, the volume or weight of the material, and the date and location of disposal.
“The reason we’re doing this is because my answers to those questions is we don’t know,” Commission Executive Director Leigh Ing told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing on Monday.
Comments on the proposed rule are being accepted until Dec. 8 at [email protected], or by mailing Ing at 505 W. 15th St., Austin, TX 78701. The commission would then consider the input and update the rule, with approval expected well ahead of the six-month deadline in May, Ing said.
