BREAKING NEWS: NRC issues license for interim storage in Texas, Governor Abbott says facility is “illegal”

Yesterday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a license for Interim Storage Partners LLC – a joint venture between Waste Control Specialists and Orano USA - to construct and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Andrews, TX.  The license authorizes the company to “receive, possess, transfer and store up to 5,000 metric tons of spent fuel and 231.1 metric tons of Greater-than-Class C low-level radioactive waste for 40 years.”

Immediately complicating matters, however, is Texas House Bill 7, legislation passed by the Texas legislature and signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott just weeks ago on September 2, 2021, banning the storage and disposal of high-level radioactive waste anywhere within state lines. The law also prohibits the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality from issuing certain permits for this kind of facility. In a letter to the NRC Chair Chris Hanson regarding the announcement, Abbott states, “…the State of Texas has serious concerns with the design of the proposed ISP facility and with locating it in an area that is essential to the country’s energy security. Now the State has made clear that a consolidated interim storage facility is not only unwelcome here, but illegal.” 

This development illustrates the challenges that remain regarding the management and disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in the absence of a permanent geologic repository in the U.S.  It is worth noting that just six years ago, in 2015, the Andrew County commissioners passed a resolution in support of establishing a site for consolidated interim storage in the community.  Support from current commissioners, however, has waned.

The NRC last granted a license for a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Utah to Private Fuel Storage in 2006.   As has historically been the case, political pressure came to bear and that facility was never constructed. 

The NRC is also currently reviewing a license for a consolidated interim storage facility in Lea County, New Mexico, submitted by Holtec International.  A decision on that project is expected early in 2022.