Capability attracts outside companies

Radioactive

ical Branch at Galveston, Texas A&M University, Luminant and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant are among those applying to export Class A waste outside the compact — some to aboveground facilities such as the one in Clive, Utah.

While firms inside the compact are applying to export less-radioactive materials, firms outside the compact are applying to bring “hotter” waste into Texas.

“For Class A waste, the present burial site will have a tough time matching the Clive site’s prices. Class B and C, it’s a no-brainer, there’s nobody else that will take it,” said John McCormick, vice president of Bionomics Inc., a company that disposes waste, including Class A, for UTMB.

Chuck McDonald, spokesman for Waste Control Specialists, said the state decided it wanted a heavily fortified disposal site, which cost more to build. That extra expense, he added, means the company cannot be competitive on price with less-robust waste facilities used mainly for Class A waste.

“Isn’t it in the state’s best interest and everybody else’s best interest to get the best rate of return?” McDonald said.

Waste Control pays local and state authorities a percentage of the gross price for disposal. For waste disposed by compact members, the state and Andrews County each collect 5 percent of gross price. When a noncompact company uses the facility, the state’s take increases to 25 percent of the gross price while Andrews County’s take stays at 5 percent, McDonald said.

The state collected about $3 million in July and August alone, according to a Waste Control press release. Andrews County, during the same two-month time period, received about $630,000. Total projected revenues for Andrews County in its 2012-13 budget are $24.7 million, said Rod Noble, Andrews County auditor.

Studsvik, a multinational company with a Tennessee waste processing plant that is not part of the Texas-Vermont compact, is applying to import more waste at the Andrews County facility, according to applications. Studsvik takes waste such as resins and filters from a nuclear power plant, and compacts and alters them for easier storage.

The 1,300-acre Waste Control facility located near the New Mexico border began accepting waste in July. It’s the nation’s first facility built to hold A, B and C class waste. The facility is embedded in red-bed clay less permeable to water than concrete, according to a WCS press release. The crater-like disposal facility is lined with concrete. Waste is placed