Plan to store radioactive waste in West Texas reemerges

A Texas radioactive waste storage plan is back.

A proposal last year to send nuclear fuel to West Texas for temporary storage was put on hold. Now, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission restarted its review of the application.

This is according to Diane D’arrigo, who is the project director for a nuclear resource center based in Washington, D.C.

She wants to warn El Paso of the dangers of shipping high level nuclear waste across the country. The proposed site is “Waste Control Specialists”, an existing hazardous waste site in Andrews County. Some of the radioactive waste would be transported by trains that cross through El Paso. D’arrigo believes there is a potential health risk that comes with the transport. She told ABC-7, “If this were a real cask, and we had irradiated fuel in it, you would be able to detect radioactivity for a half mile in all directions around that cask. And there are legal levels for radioactivity but they are not safe levels, there are no safe levels.” According to the website for ISP — the company submitting the application to transport — it has been transporting nuclear waste safely since 1965.