State lawmakers again try to ban most dangerous nuclear waste as feds consider allowing it at West Texas site
A failed regular session bill sought to give a financial break to a West Texas nuclear waste disposal company. Now, lawmakers have removed what opponents called a giveaway and are again trying to pass a bill to stop highly radioactive materials from coming to Texas.
Texas lawmakers want to ban dangerous radioactive waste. The proposal would give a nuclear waste company a big financial break.
West Texas is on track to get even more nuclear waste โ thanks to the federal government
But while the slow-moving plan is wrapped in political turmoil, lower-profile changes and proposals from federal agencies are giving Waste Control Specialists another avenue to accept more radioactive waste than it does today. The company is already permitted to accept low-level nuclear waste in Andrews County. The plan to build a facility to store spent nuclear fuel, the most dangerous kind, would bring whatโs considered high-level nuclear waste. Some nuclear energy industry experts theorized that expensive commercial nuclear waste facilities like WCS overestimated the amount of low-level nuclear waste that would need disposal as power plant operators became more efficient. AdThe WCS facility is permitted to accept Class A, B, and C nuclear waste โ categories that fall below high-level material like spent nuclear fuel.