Will Texas become the nation’s nuclear waste dump?
By Julia Strong
Highlights
- Spent nuclear fuel is highly radioactive and stays that way forever in terms of human civilization.
- Soon after Gov. Greg Abbott worked to ban nuclear waste from being stored in Texas, he declared the state would build a “world-leading advanced nuclear industry.”
- The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether radioactive nuclear waste can be stored in Texas later this year.
In earlier stories centered on the state’s nuclear expansion, Chisme Collective explained the vision laid out by Texas leaders and elected officials for a nuclear future. That future has the potential for an incredible amount of radioactive nuclear waste.
Catch up with our nuclear coverage:
· 'Advanced' nuclear reactors coming to Coastal Bend
In 2021, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill to ban highly radioactive material from being sent to Texas for storage, only to hypocritically fast-track the mining of radioactive uranium in South Texas. Spent nuclear fuel is highly radioactive and stays that way forever in terms of human civilization. Just the half-life (the time it takes for the radioactivity to reduce by half) of Plutonium 239 is 24,000 years.
The radioactive life of nuclear waste is about 10 times the half-life. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), no permanent solution for the storage of this waste has been developed. The waste is stored in pools of water until it cools off enough to be encased in stainless steel and concrete; it is then stored in dry casts.
The NRC grants licenses for this temporary type of storage for 40 years, after which the licenses are eligible for renewal. The commission has awarded two licenses for interim nuclear waste storage facilities in New Mexico and Texas. If these are ever built, they would store the waste until a permanent storage solution is discovered — if that ever happens.
Even though Abbott tried to ban high-level nuclear waste being stored in Texas, the NRC issued a license to Interim Storage Partners for interim nuclear storage in a facility in Far West Texas, according to Marfa Public Radio in 2021.
The state quickly sued the Biden administration; in 2023, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the interim storage facility.
Last October, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the appeals court ruling that “found that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission exceeded its authority under federal law in granting a license to a private company to store spent nuclear fuel at a dump in West Texas for 40 years,” according to the Associated Press.
Abbott has repeatedly been quoted saying Texas “will not become America’s nuclear waste dumping ground.” This is the same dude who last November also said, “Texas is the energy capital of the world, and we are ready to be No. 1 in advanced nuclear power.”
Proclaiming Texas will be No. 1 in advanced nuclear power also may prophesize Texas being No. 1 in high-level, radioactive nuclear waste. It is up to the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether radioactive nuclear waste can be stored in Texas. Whatever the court decides, Texas could be screwed.
READ MORE: Who uses most of the water in the Coastal Bend? Help us find out.
If the court upholds the appeals court ruling and blocks waste from coming to Texas, then the state will not be able to export its waste to other states. Other states could then use the same defense because a precedent will have been set. If the court overrules the appeals court ruling, then waste can be transported to Texas from all over the country.
Either ruling poses serious health and environmental concerns for all Texas residents. If Abbott gets the nuclear future he wishes for the Lone Star State, Texas may not be able to export its waste to other states, leaving Texans holding the radioactive-waste bag with no permanent solution in sight.