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inside metal drums, then put in large concretelined casks and then buried in the fortified site, according to a Waste Control report.

The more radioactive the waste, the higher the disposal price. Also, firms outside those in the compact pay higher prices to store waste at the facility.

For years environmentalists such as Karen Hadden, executive director of Austinbased Sustainable Energy and Economic Development, SEED, opposed the project for myriad reasons, including the potential for groundwater contamination and for accidents during the transportation of waste, which arrives by truck at the remote facility.

“They are burying waste at a site that is not all the way dry,” Hadden said. She also said that promises that much of the waste accepted at the site would be medical waste have proven to be incorrect. “Additional waste coming from Studsvik is reactor waste,” she said.

Potential contamination of the water table near the site has been a sticking point for opponents of the disposal facility for a decade. McDonald says Waste Control has done its due diligence by boring about 640 water-monitoring wells. The only water present near the site is ancient, trapped by clay and unconnected to any aquifer, he said.

Waste Control is a subsidiary of Valhi, which is chaired by Dallas billionaire and Republican mega-donor Harold Simmons. Simmons has been one of the largest contributors to Rick Perry and Republicans on the state and national level, according to campaign finance records.