Waste Control Specialists (WCS) received a lot of radioactive waste by train at its West Texas site during 2024, company president David Carlson told Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit last week in Savannah, Ga.
During 2024, WCS received 600 shipments of waste by rail. This included 5,000 canisters and 3 million cubic feet of waste, according to Carlson’s presentation.
Waste Control Specialists provides treatment, storage and disposal for various types of low-level radioactive waste and related material at its complex in Andrews County, Texas. “WCS has the only rail line in Andrews County,” Carlson said in his June 11 slide presentation.
WCS is served by two major railroads, Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Carlson said. In addition there are five miles of rail line from Waste Control Specialists to Eunice, N.M., where a Urenco USA enrichment facility is located.
Earlier this year, the Department of Energy shipped a total of 2,000 gallons of pretreated tank waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state to WCS in Texas and EnergySolutions in Utah for grouting and disposal. The shipments, done by truck, were part of the tank bed initiative.
