A bill pending in the Texas state legislature’s environment committee would ban the storage of high-level waste, including spent nuclear fuel, in the Lone Star State, its Republican sponsor said Monday
The measure would “eliminate the need to conflate the phantom menace of high-level radioactive waste” with comparatively safe low-level waste and ensure that the state won’t need to eventually take over at privately-owned disposal sites, state Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R) said at a meeting of the state House Environmental Regulation Committee.
If the bill passes in the committee — which Landgraf chairs — its next stop is the full state House.
The meeting adjourned Monday evening before the committee voted on the bill. The body had not scheduled a vote at deadline Tuesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
The measure, which would ban the storage of HLW in Texas with the exception of onsite waste at power plants and universities, comes as Waste Control Specialists (WCS) is waiting on federal approval to build an interim storage site for spent fuel near its existing low-level facility in Andrews County, Texas. The company’s president told the Environmental Regulation committee March 8 that they wouldn’t build the site without state approval.
High-level waste typically refers to spent fuel from nuclear reactors or other highly-irradiated materials from power plants.
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is working on an environmental impact statement for the proposed WCS interim storage site. That process won’t be done until summer, the agency has said.
