Texas Gov. Greg Abbott joined a state petition urging the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to vacate a federal license that would bring spent nuclear fuel to a private storage facility in the Permian Basin.
Last September, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued an operating license to Interim Storage Partners LLC. The company proposed building a nuclear storage site in Andrews County, Texas, less than a mile from the New Mexico border. The facility would initially transport, receive and store up to 5,000 metric tons of spent fuel, along with another 231 metric tons of lower level radioactive waste for 40 years. Interim Storage Partners indicated the storage site could eventually handle as much as 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel.
Project costs could be about $350 million during the construction phase and total expenses of close to $2.3 billion by the end of the 40-year lifespan, according to an NRC project report.
Texas argued the NRC’s licensing exceeds its statutory authority, botches basic administrative-law principles, and fails to account for the environmental risks posed by a terrorist attack. After the operating license was granted, Abbott signed a new law, known as House Bill 7, banning nuclear storage facilities in the state.
"I will not let Texas become America’s dumping ground for deadly radioactive waste," said Abbott.
In Texas, there are two commercial reactors at Comanche Peak and two at The South Texas Project. Both sites store all of their spent nuclear fuel in spent fuel pools and in dry cask storage at their site.
Interim Storage Partners is a joint venture of Waste Control Specialists (WCS) LLC and Orano USA. It intends to construct the storage facility on property adjacent to the WCS low-level radioactive waste disposal site already operating under a Texas license.
The spent fuel and waste must be stored in canisters and cask systems, which must meet NRC standards for protection against leakage, radiation dose rates, and criticality, under normal and accident conditions. The canisters are required to be sealed when they arrive at the facility and remain sealed during onsite handling and storage activities.
Read more on decommissioning and nuclear waste management here
NRC staff concluded that land, air and water impacts from the facility would be relatively small, including about 330 acres for the storage facilities themselves. Transportation infrastructure and activities also would not be a major issue, according to an NRC report.
The report also noted environmental exposure risk was low, given the transportation safeguards and relatively short time in transport.
U.S. Department of Energy statistics indicate that the country’s commercial nuclear power industry generates about 2,000 metric tons of used uranium fuel per year. Once spent and removed from the reactor, used fuel roads are currently stored at close to 75 sites in 34 states, according to the DOE.
