The S-A Editorial staff concludes that the Waste Control Specialists site near Andrews near the Texas-New Mexico border is suited for spent nuclear waste. And the casks that transport nuclear waste are virtually indestructible.
There has been no shortage of local anxiety over a proposal to transport and store high-level nuclear waste in West Texas. Bexar County Commissioners Court unanimously voted to oppose the transport of spent nuclear fuel to Andrews County, and City Councilman Ron Nirenberg has said he wants the city to legally oppose Waste Control Specialists application.
The concern is that rail transport of high-level nuclear waste from across the U.S. to Andrews County will pass through Bexar County, putting our community at risk. But the facts do not support the concern. Nuclear waste is transported safely all the time. And there needs to be a solution to either the interim or long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel at more than 62 sites across the nation. This includes 29 years of high-level waste stored at the South Texas Project.
Waste Control Specialists hopes to begin accepting high-level nuclear waste by 2021. Its application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been deemed complete, but extensive review and deliberation remains. Because the U.S. has failed for decades to develop a permanent storage site for nuclear power plant waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, roughly 70,000 metric tons of it is being stored at power plants across the country. This includes stranded fuel at shuttered plants.
So, a local fight is underway.
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