By Michaela Angeline, Communications Intern
Interim Storage Partners (ISP), made up of Waste Control Specialists and Orano USA, is currently trying to obtain a license for a project that would make Texas the dumping ground for 40,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste from reactors around the country.
If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approves the project, the fuel would travel by train to our state over the next 20 years, raising serious concerns for communities across Texas.
But this issue hasn’t been flying under the radar, and it’s not the first time the proposal has come up. With a fast-approaching public comment deadline of Oct. 19, Texans of all backgrounds are mobilizing to raise awareness, stop this project and protect their health, water, and soils from increased radiation.
Nuclear Waste - The Basics
Spent nuclear fuel is a byproduct of nuclear reactions that take place in nuclear power plants. Once a reaction ceases and the fuel rods in a nuclear reactor are “spent,” they are removed from the reactor core and stored onsite in pools of water that regulate the temperature of the fuel rods. Eventually, they are moved to dry casks made of steel and concrete which provide shielding from escape of radioactive materials. However, no permanent repository exists for spent fuel in the United States and spent fuel is currently kept at reactor sites.
Exposure to high-level nuclear waste can cause birth defects, cancer, and even death. It is invisible and has no smell or taste, making it difficult to detect.
The fuel rods that come out of nuclear reactors still contain most of the original uranium and plutonium and are highly radioactive and harmful upon exposure.
What's being proposed?
ISP wants to haul 40,000 tons of spent fuel rods from all around the country to Texas and store them above ground in West Texas, placing nearby communities at risk of higher radiation exposure and making communities across Texas potential accident zones as the fuel makes its way via rail to the proposed repository site in Andrews County. Storage is for 40 years, but according to their license application, WCS anticipates needing an extension.
Transporting Nuclear Waste: A Disaster Waiting To Happen
The nuclear reactor waste would pass through heavily populated areas in Texas if the WCS project gets licensed by the NRC.
Routes for radioactive waste transport to Texas
The transportation of this nuclear waste across Texas communities comes with the risk of accidents, leaks, and even the acknowledgment that railcars filled with nuclear waste would make deadly targets for a terrorist attack.
More than 10,000 rail cars would move across the nation to Texas for 20 years, threatening the health of communities and the environment. A rail accident with spent fuel could cause an estimated 2,000 cancer fatalities and cost up to $270 billion for cleanup. The consequences of a rail accident would continue on into the future, as uranium has a half-life of about 24,000 years. This means that if an accident occurs, the high-level radioactive waste has the potential to harm both humans and the environment for the next 24,000 years.
West Texas train collision in 2016
Radioactive waste harms humans directly by causing death within hours or days, or cancer from acute exposure by damaging the tissue and DNA in genes.
The radioactive materials end up in our food, air, and water, as well as the bodies of all living creatures. If acute exposure doesn’t occur, chronic exposure is possible through the intake of radioactive materials in the food or water that we eat.
The Resistance: A Statewide Tour, Lawsuits, And More
Currently, the Sustainable Energy & Economic Development (SEED) Coalition is working alongside Public Citizen to raise awareness of this dangerous proposed project. They are in the midst of a statewide tour that started on Sept. 24 in Houston and will finish on Oct. 1 in Andrews County (listen to Sierra Club Organizer Greg Harman’s podcast on the San Antonio stop of the tour here).
Resolutions have been passed in Dallas, Bexar, Midland and Nueces Counties, and San Antonio, that oppose consolidated storage of high-level waste, along with the transport of the waste through their region, and the Texas Democratic Party has included in its party platform language that opposes high-level radioactive waste transport.
SEED Coalition and Public Citizen are also launching and funding a legal challenge to the licensing of the proposed waste project, and working to get additional resolutions passed in Houston and El Paso.
What You Can Do
ISP has announced the continuation of the licensing process at the NRC and has submitted a revised application for review.
The NRC will be accepting comments regarding the WCS Storage Facility Project license application until Oct 19, so please send in your comments opposing the project here.
It is crucial that Texans get on the record opposing this proposal in order to protect their communities from health risks and environmental contamination.
You also have the ability to speak out anywhere and everywhere possible about this issue. Call TV reporters and radio talk shows. Spread the word about the risks of this radioactive waste proposal that is trying to convert Texas in a dumping ground for toxic waste that we did not generate. As an individual, you can make a difference.
For more information contact: Karen Hadden, Sierra Club member, SEED Coalition, karendhadden@gmail.com