Texas Approves Nation's Largest Low-Level Radioactive
Waste Site
AUSTIN, Texas, January 14, 2009 (ENS)
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, voted 2-0 Tuesday to grant
a double license for Waste Control Specialists to dispose of up to 28
million cubic feet of low-level radioactive waste from Texas, Vermont and
the federal government in Andrews County. Commissioner Larry Soward
abstained from the vote.
The site is located in west Texas near the New Mexico border.
The commission also denied the request by the Lone Star Chapter of the
Sierra Club on behalf of its Eunice, New Mexico members for a contested case
hearing before an administrative law judge to decide the merits of the
license.
"The agency and commissioners by their action are approving the nation's
largest commercial radioactive waste site when basic facts about the site
are still inadequately understood," said Dr. Cyrus Reed, conservation
director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. "They had nothing to
lose, and everything to gain by granting us the opportunity to prove in
court that the site is inadequate and potentially dangerous."
Reed said the Sierra Club will look at its legal options, including
appealing the decision to State District Court.
Rose Gardner, a resident of Eunice, New Mexico and a Sierra Club member,said
that her flower shop, general feed store, crops, animals and health are now
at risk by the opening of a major, commercial radioactive waste site several
miles from her home.
"While many people in Andrews County support this dangerous venture, it is
the people of Eunice, New Mexico who will be impacted by depressed real
estate prices and sales," she said, "and the people of Eunice, New Mexico
who are being asked to trust a license being issued for a site when we
haven't even studied the potential for erosion, wind-blow radioactive
particles, or even know where the water table or dry line is below the
site."
Drum filled with typical low-level radioactive waste (Photo courtesy Dounrey)
Low-level radioactive waste includes items that have become contaminated
with radioactive material or have become radioactive through exposure to
neutron radiation.
This waste typically consists of contaminated protective shoe covers and
clothing, wiping rags, mops, filters, reactor water treatment residues,
equipments and tools, luminous dials, medical tubes, swabs, injection
needles, syringes, and laboratory animal carcasses and tissues, according to
the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which states, "The radioactivity
can range from just above background levels found in nature to very highly
radioactive in certain cases such as parts from inside the reactor vessel in
a nuclear power plant."
In submitting its request, the Sierra Club noted that the Environmental
Analysis prepared by the agency showed that basic facts about the proposed
sites - its final design, radioactive safety program, the level of the water
tables, saturation levels and the exact location of the "dry line" had not
been satisfied by the applicant, forcing TCEQ to add conditions to the
license.
The license grants Waste Control Specialists the authority to bring in
low-level radioactive waste to both a State Compact Site - primarily to
serve the state's two nuclear plants - and a federal facility for Department
of Energy waste.
Reed says that the site could eventually become the largest commercial
low-level radioactive waste site in the world, with some wastes remaining
dangerous for tens of thousands of years.
Reed warns that the proposed federal site could accept some radioactive
wastes that are not even containerized, leading to potential direct spills
or runoff of radioactive substances.
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