Archive for the ‘WCS’ Category

MARCH 14, 2018

BY EXCHANGEMONITOR

Nearly a year after putting it on ice, Waste Control Specialists aims to revive its application for a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to build and operate a facility for consolidated interim storage of used fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors. It is doing so in a joint venture planned with Orano USA.

Establishment of the joint venture and a formal request to restart the NRC review are expected in the second quarter of this year, said Jeffery Isakson, vice president of business operations at Orano subsidiary TN Americas, who is working on the spent fuel storage project.

The plan remains to build a facility on Waste Control Specialists’ property in Andrews County, Texas, to temporarily hold up to 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel until the Department of Energy finds a permanent home for the radioactive waste.

In a joint press release, the companies touted the experience they will bring to the project: Orano’s (formerly AREVA) capabilities in fuel packaging, storage, and transportation, and Waste Control Specialists’ operation of a disposal facility for low-level radioactive and other waste forms from the commercial and government sectors. Isakson said he could not yet discuss details of what each company will provide operationally to the joint venture.

“When the NRC receives the WCS request to resume, the staff will develop a new schedule for continuing the review, publish a new notice of hearing on this license application, and re-open the environmental scoping period for 60 days using our established procedures for these activities,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre said by email Tuesday.

Waste Control Specialists first submitted its application in April 2016, in partnership with NAC International and AREVA. The NRC completed its acceptance review of the application in January 2017, but the company in April of that year asked that the regulator halt the full technical review ahead of WCS’ then-pending merger with EnergySolutions. A federal judge blocked that deal on antitrust grounds, and Waste Control Specialists was acquired in January by private equity firm J.F. Lehman.

Orano USA was previously AREVA Nuclear Materials prior to its parent company’s renaming in January

Friday, January 26, 2018

By Trevor Hawes thawes(at)mrt.com
Midland Reporter-Telegram

FILE – In this Oct. 14, 2009, photo provided by Waste Control Specialists, canisters filled with uranium byproduct waste are placed into a burial pit at at Waste Control Specialists near Andrews, Texas. People living nearest to the site would be barred from challenging license amendments sought by the company operating the facility under a Senate bill that could be voted on as early as Wednesday, April 17, 2013. The bill also encourages compact members Texas and Vermont to send their low-level waste elsewhere and seeks to prohibit public hearings or comment on some amendments to the company’s license. (AP Photo/Waste Control Specialists, File)

Waste Control Specialists, which operates a low-level radioactive waste storage facility in Andrews, has been sold, according to a company press release.

WCS was sold by Valhi Inc. to J.F. Lehman & Co., a middle-market private equity firm focused on the government, defense, aerospace and maritime sectors.

WCS lost an antitrust lawsuit in June after the U.S. District Court of Delaware ruled in favor of the Justice Department against a merger with EnergySolutions, a Utah-based company that specializes in decommissioning nuclear power plants.

WCS had pursued making its Andrews facility a place for the temporary storage of high-level nuclear waste while the federal government determines a site for permanent storage. WCS was going through a review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission over the feasibility of the temporary storage plan.

Alex Harman, a partner at JFLCO said, "WCS is a unique asset that, together with our recent acquisition of NorthStar Group Services, will allow us to provide a complete and cost-effective decommissioning solution for U.S. nuclear utilities."

A sale price was not disclosed. A press release from Valhi indicated J.F. Lehman assumed all of WCS’ third-party indebtedness and other liabilities.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Edward Klump, reporter
E&E News

Waste Control Specialists LLC, after months in corporate limbo, may look at restarting its push to store high-level radioactive waste in West Texas.

That’s because an investment affiliate of J.F. Lehman & Co. recently acquired WCS, ending the company’s hazy status under Valhi Inc.

WCS asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last year to suspend — temporarily — the review of its high-level waste proposal, citing the cost and its limited financial resources. The company was waiting to see if a deal to sell WCS to EnergySolutions, a well-known industry player, would close. The transaction fizzled after a judge blocked it (Energywire, June 22, 2017).

Instead, WCS is joining J.F. Lehman’s portfolio. In a statement last week, Glenn Shor, managing director at J.F. Lehman, said the partnership "with WCS will ensure that the business has the resources required to support its long-term growth strategy across the government and commercial marketplace." The deal also gives WCS closer ties to NorthStar Group Services Inc., which is involved in the nuclear decommissioning business.

"This is not the end of the line for WCS as it still has much more to accomplish," Rod Baltzer, who had been CEO at WCS, said in a statement.

The request for a delay last year in the NRC’s high-level waste review was surprising because WCS had championed its potential to help store spent fuel from U.S. reactors, though Valhi had recorded operating losses from its waste segment for years. It remains to be seen how J.F. Lehman may help to boost volumes of various types of waste at WCS and perhaps pursue high-level storage. While a number of West Texas voices have touted potential economic benefits from the high-level waste plan, critics have blasted the idea over safety and environmental concerns (Energywire, Feb. 24, 2017).

Last year, J.F. Lehman announced that an investment affiliate had "recapitalized" NorthStar and a related entity in partnership with another firm. The new WCS deal means it and NorthStar are under a shared umbrella. J.F. Lehman is a private equity firm that has an interest in areas such as aerospace, defense and maritime holdings. Under the WCS deal, Valhi said the acquirer would assume WCS’s third-party indebtedness and take on certain liabilities.

Scott State, an executive with NorthStar, was listed last week by J.F. Lehman as CEO of WCS. Baltzer is no longer an employee or officer at WCS, though he is consulting during a transition period.

Efforts by E&E News to obtain further comments this week from J.F. Lehman and State about plans for high-level waste and the NRC process for WCS were unsuccessful. Baltzer said in a statement last April that WCS expected to go forward with the project as soon as possible after a sale, though EnergySolutions was the potential acquirer at the time.

One prominent WCS critic expects the push for high-level waste in West Texas to re-emerge now that new parties are involved.

"It seems likely to me that they will push for it," said Karen Hadden, executive director of the Texas-based Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition. She added: "We remain concerned and ready to fight to protect Texas and New Mexico."

If there is movement with the application, Hadden called for the NRC to start the licensing process over in terms of scoping meetings and public notice. The application will need to be revised in light of new WCS ownership, she said, suggesting there could be questions on finances, technology and safety.

"The public deserves the opportunity to thoroughly examine what gets put forward and to comment on a fresh version of their application," she said.

NRC process

The NRC indicated this week that the WCS review process hasn’t been restarted. The commission is also reviewing documents from Holtec International about a different interim storage proposal for a site in New Mexico (Energywire, April 6, 2017).

Scott Burnell, an NRC spokesman, said via email the agency expects to "re-notice" and restart the environmental scoping process if there’s word that WCS wants to restart. He said the NRC is doing an acceptance check on the Holtec application, meaning a full review could start if it’s acceptable.

Issues around how to deal with potential interim storage and a permanent repository, such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada, remain tied up in Congress (Greenwire, Jan. 25).

Yesterday, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners issued a statement saying 20 years have passed since the federal government defaulted on a legal responsibility to store nuclear waste. NARUC said damages related to the government’s failure to act are in the billions of dollars and could rise substantially.

The association called on Congress to act, saying additional appropriations from the Nuclear Waste Fund already collected are needed to help with a review of the Yucca Mountain license application.

Hadden has opposed interim high-level proposals from WCS and Holtec, as well as the potential to use Yucca Mountain in the long term. She called for a "viable permanent repository" that has the right systems and geology for permanent disposal.

The Brattleboro Reformer newspaper in Vermont recently quoted State, WCS’s new CEO, as saying the new corporate setup wouldn’t reduce waste-removal prices for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant decommissioning. That reactor ceased power generation in late 2014. State said the WCS deal would streamline the relationship between the company and NorthStar, according to the newspaper. Both companies hope to be involved in proposed decommissioning at the plant site.

WCS operates an existing low-level radioactive waste disposal business in Andrews County, Texas.

"The management of Waste Control will be 100 percent focused on the needs of NorthStar," State told the Brattleboro Reformer. "We will be able to better control and manage the activities for shipping waste and disposing of waste that comes out of Vermont Yankee."

Alex Harman, a partner at J.F. Lehman, in a statement last week expressed excitement at the idea of helping with the long-term success of WCS, including by "strengthening the partnership with NorthStar" on nuclear power plant decommissioning. State, in the same release, said WCS’s site has "significant capacity for growth."

Low-level waste should be a good business, according to Fred Beach, an assistant director for policy studies at the Energy Institute at the University of Texas, Austin. That could come from realms including medical and energy businesses.

Beach wondered about the likelihood of creating an interim site for high-level waste, saying it’s a tough business. He has suggested the United States look to close its fuel cycle for nuclear power and recycle fuel. If that isn’t politically feasible, he said Yucca Mountain could still be a permanent disposal site.

"WCS has a bright future and should reap synergistic benefits from the tighter ties with NorthStar and their plans for the nuclear power plant decommissioning market," said Baltzer, the former CEO.

Midland County Dems react to Conaway’s support of storage bill

February 9, 2017

By Trevor Hawes thawes@mrt.com
Midland Reporter-Telegram

Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of PublicCitizen Texas office, speaks Thursday 02-09-17 during a press conference about how citizens can make their voice heard concerning the action of Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County changing to a high level nuclear waste depository. Tim Fischer/Reporter-Telegram

February 9, 2017

A recent letter from Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway about the proposed high-level nuclear waste storage site in Andrews has prompted Midland County Democrats to act in hopes of a better solution, and they’re reaching out for help.

The Midland County Democratic Party held a press conference at the DoubleTree hotel Thursday and brought with them activist heavyweights Tom "Smitty" Smith, longtime director of Public Citizen Texas, and Karen Hadden, president of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition, better known as SEED.

"This is not just a Democratic thing to be concerned about," MCDP Chairman David Rosen said. "We invite our Republican brothers and sisters, as well as the unaffiliated. A waste dump 50 miles from Midland is not a good idea."

Conaway issued a press release on Jan. 12 with comments in support of H.R. 474, the Interim Consolidated Storage Act. The bill seeks to amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 "to authorize the Secretary of Energy to enter into contracts for the storage of certain high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, take title to certain high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, and make certain expenditures from the Nuclear Waste Fund," according to the bill’s summary.

A few companies are seeking to house high-level nuclear waste from dozens of decommissioned nuclear power plants that currently sit at reactor sites and from those to be decommissioned in the future. At issue is the Department of Energy’s inaction on taking possession of the waste and putting it into permanent storage, which by law it must do.

One company that seeks to take the waste for temporary storage while the Department of Energy finds a permanent home for the dangerous material is Waste Control Specialists, which already had a low-level radioactive waste storage facility west of Andrews. WCS wants to house the waste above ground while the Department of Energy finds a solution.

H.R. 474 would help move the process along, with the relocation of waste beginning in as little as five years. "This legislation allows the Department of Energy to cut through the red tape and enter into contracts with these licensed facilities, such as the one in Andrews, ensuring that nuclear waste will be properly stored until a permanent site is established," Conaway said in his press release.

WCS initially wants to take 5,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste for above-ground storage, according to previous Reporter-Telegram reports. Its facility will have capacity for up to 40,000 metric tons.

Smith said above-ground storage has "risks beyond what any community ought to take." He said that the waste should be buried underground, citing preliminary studies dating back to the 1980s that show perhaps the site with the best and safest geology is Washington, D.C. However, storage at the nation’s capital isn’t "politically feasible," he said.

Smith also said above-ground storage is dangerous because it’s an open target for terrorist attacks.

"We have a lot of concern about the potential of terrorist attacks," he told the Reporter-Telegram before the press conference. "This waste is basically going to be sitting on a big parking lot and visible to anyone who uses Google Maps. This is just putting a big nuclear target on West Texas and eastern New Mexico. Any terrorist worth his salt who wants to take a good shot at the United States would aim a rocket right at those locations."

Smith had no comment when asked during the press conference why waste storage casks shown to survive a battery of tests in the late 1970s, including impacts on a "rocket-powered train," were no longer viable but permanent site storage research from the early 1980s was.

Hadden said the canisters needed to be more robust because they will contain as much plutonium as the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Codenamed "Fat Man," the bomb was dropped on the city on Aug. 9, 1945. About 22,000 people died on the first day and 17,000 more perished in the four months after, according to the World Nuclear Association.

"Forty-two square miles of land could be uninhabitable from an accident," she said. Hadden said the steel casing for canisters in the U.S. are about a half-inch thick; in Europe, they’re up to 10 inches thick.

Ultimately, Smith and Hadden argued that temporary centralized nuclear waste storage wasn’t necessary. They said the current sites are secure and that what’s really needed is a safe, secure and permanent storage site underground.

Smith also expressed worry that temporary storage sites might wind up as de facto permanent sites because the federal government will no longer have incentive to actively find a forever home for the waste.

"I don’t think (the federal government) will officially name Andrews a permanent disposal site, but it will never move because nobody wants it," he said before the event.

Hadden and Smith are taking their message to Andrews on Saturday and were in Eunice, New Mexico, on Wednesday. The mini tour is setting up for U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission public meetings next week. The first is 7-10 p.m. MST Monday at the Lea County Event Center, 5101 N. Lovington Highway, in Hobbs, New Mexico. The second is 7-10 p.m. Wednesday at the James Roberts Center, 855 State Highway 176, in Andrews.

"One of the opportunities within a democracy is to make your opinions heard," Smith said. "Democracy is a contact sport, and this is your opportunity to have contact with the people who make these decisions and tell them what you think about (putting high-level nuclear waste) in West Texas and the consequences for tens of thousands of years."

Like Trevor on Facebook and follow him on Twitter at @HowdyHawes.

—-BE HEARD

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold two public comment hearings next week, where residents can weigh in on the proposal to store high-level nuclear waste in West Texas and eastern New Mexico. The schedule is as follows:

• Hobbs, New Mexico.: 7-10 p.m. MST Monday at the Lea County Event Center, 5101 N. Lovington Highway.

• Andrews: 7-10 p.m. CST Wednesday at the James Roberts Center, 855 State Highway 176.

Feb 10, 2017

CBS7 News

ANDREWS — Could your backyard be the new home to a nuclear waste site? Andrews is waiting to be licensed as a temporary holding site for radioactive waste.

Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of the Public Citizen’s Texas office spoke to the concerns of bringing a high-level radioactive site in west Texas in a meeting Thursday.

According to Waste Control Specialist, "it’ll bring in somewhere around 40 or 50 new jobs and normally these are fairly high paying jobs," Vice President, Tom Jones said, "right now there’s already over 100 places around the county that this stuff is already being stored."

While one side argues bringing in a radioactive waste plant will help the economy grow a non-profit environmentalist group disagrees — citing safety over salaries.

"Putting high level radioactive waste out in west Texas is a really bad idea," non-profit group Public Citizen director Tom "Smitty" Smith said.

Both sides are going head-to-head about a proposed nuclear disposal site 30 miles west of Andrews. It’s an idea that lifelong resident of west Texas and mother, Delilah Cantu, is concerned about, "this is my home. This is what I want to protect."

From health concerns to even being worried about falling properly value, Cantu is working with the Public Citizen non-profit group called public citizen, whose most recent purpose is to stop the licensing of a radioactive waste plant in west Texas.

"WCS promises this is going to be a temporary sight but that depends on congress ever being responsible enough to ever create a long term repository," "Smitty" Smith said.

WCS the government will immediately take over the waste project but there’s no telling how many decades the plant will be in west Texas, "I think folks are scared of the unknown. This is material people have been dealing with for the last 50 or 60 years," Jones said, but that doesn’t ease Cantu’s worries her concerns keep growing like this one, "the remapping of the aquifer in Andrews," Cantu said.

According to WCS, Andrews is not on top of an aquifer, "we’ve had 640 borings out there. We’ve got over 400 wells dry. We can prove we are. It over a drinking source."

Other concerns like terroristic threats were posed but WCS said that doesn’t pose a threat.

Public hearing will be next week:

• Feb. 13 in Hobbs, NM at 7 p.m. at Lea Country Event Center.

• Feb. 15 in Andrews at 7 p.m. at James Robert Center.

Visit NoNuclearWasteAqui.org and WCSTexas.com for more information.