Texas Leading Way on Nuclear Energy Revival
Conn Carroll /
The Wall Street Journal reports today that the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission voted 5-2 yesterday to approve rules for accepting out-of-state nuclear materials. This is a huge victory for the nuclear energy industry which currently only has three other such storage sites in the U.S. Nuclear Energy Institute Ralph Andersen tells the WSJ: “This is a major milestone. It’s going to provide much needed space.”
The site will not store highly contaminated waste, such as spent fuel from power plants. Instead it will hold low-level waste like materials and equipment from nuclear plants, research laboratories and hospitals. But with 58,000 tons of waste sitting at reactors and universities across the country, the new Texas facility is just a start. What is really needed is a free-market approach to managing nuclear waste, with proper government oversight. Among the steps needed to privatize the system, as outlined by Heritage nuclear expert Jack Spencer, include: (more…)