Last Updated: April 7, 2021 by cpanel02

NUCLEAR WASTE – TEXAS/NEW MEXICO

Landgraf nuclear waste bill doesn’t ‘go far enough,’ says PBC

State Representative Brooks Landgraf has filed a bill, prohibiting the storage and disposal of high-level waste in Texas.

Midland Reporter-Telegram, March 5, 2021

The Permian Basin Coalition released a statement Thursday saying that Rep. Brooks Landgraf’s bill to ban the storage of high-level nuclear waste in Texas “does not go far enough” in seeking to keep nuclear waste out of the state.

Landgraf’s bill would ban the storage and disposal of high-level nuclear waste away from civilian nuclear power plants or university research reactors in Texas. A proposal from Waste Control Specialists to expand their existing nuclear waste site in Andrews County to store high-level waste would be impacted by the bill.

The coalition, made up of the Permian Basin Land and Royalty Owners and Operators and Fasken Oil and Ranch, are asking Landgraf to expand his bill to include a total ban on the transportation and storage of anything greater than Class C waste in Texas.

As written, Landgraf’s bill only applies to entities that hold a license to store low-level waste, according to the coalition. They state that the bill would also eliminate fees paid to the state and Andrews County, as well as certain contractual requirements when discussing disposal with waste generators.

“The Coalition is looking forward to working with Rep. Landgraf to ensure that a state-wide ban on the consolidated storage of spent nuclear fuel and other high-level waste from reactors around the country will stand as a bulwark against the end-run the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is making around the federal laws governing this activity,” they said in the statement.