{"id":35705,"date":"2014-04-03T09:42:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T14:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=35705"},"modified":"2014-04-03T14:09:48","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T19:09:48","slug":"bound-for-new-mexico-diverted-nuclear-waste-arrives-in-west-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/04\/03\/bound-for-new-mexico-diverted-nuclear-waste-arrives-in-west-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Originally Meant for New Mexico, Diverted Nuclear Waste Arrives in West Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

(Waste Control Specialists)<\/p>

The first in a series of radioactive waste shipments arrives in Andrews County on Wednesday, April 2.<\/p><\/div>\n

A truckload of radioactive waste that was originally meant to wind up at a storage site in Carlsbad, New Mexico arrived in West Texas today.<\/p>\n

It was just the first of many that\u00a0will be crossing the state line into Andrews County<\/a>over the coming months.<\/p>\n

The waste was initially headed for theWaste Isolation Pilot Plant<\/a>\u00a0in Carlsbad, but that site\u2019s been shuttered for over a month after what officials have described as a small leak\u00a0contaminated 17 workers.<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s called \u201ctransuranic waste\u201d \u2013 things like clothing, rags and tools that saw low levels of contamination over decades of nuclear power research and weapons development at the\u00a0Los Alamos National Laboratory<\/a>\u00a0in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

A company called\u00a0Waste Control Specialists<\/a>\u00a0in Andrews County has secured an $8.8 million contract to temporarily store the materials until the Carlsbad site is back up and running.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no set timeline for when that could happen, but in the meantime, the Department of Energy says as many as 100 more shipments will be sent to West Texas over the next few months, with as many as 10 shipments arriving per week.<\/p>\n

Waste Control\u2019s spokesperson Chuck McDonald says there is a timeline for when the waste will be fully arrived in Andrews County.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to have all of this waste removed from Los Alamos by June 30th of this year,\u201d McDonald says.<\/p>\n

The shutdown in Carlsbad has focused new attention on the nation\u2019s problem of finding a long-term home for nuclear waste.<\/p>\n

Governor Rick Perry on Wednesday called on state officials to\u00a0start working on solutions in Texas,<\/a>\u00a0and to stop waiting on the federal government.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Perry said the state has \u201cno choice\u201d but to start looking for somewhere to store its OWN waste within its own borders, and Chuck McDonald says that\u2019s not a bad move.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously think it\u2019s appropriate for the state to address the long-term issues associated with high-level radioactive waste,\u201d McDonald says.<\/p>\n

McDonald says his company would consider being an option for a long-term storage site in Texas, if the nearby community welcomes the idea.<\/p>\n

Waste Control\u2019s one-year contract with the Department of Energy to house the waste could be extended, if the Carlsbad site still isn\u2019t ready to take the load.<\/p>\n

But for now, the DOE says it will give state regulators a written plan to move the waste back from Andrews County by September 30th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A truckload of radioactive waste that was originally meant to wind up at a storage site in Carlsbad, New Mexico arrived in West Texas today. It was just the first of many that\u00a0will be crossing the state line into Andrews Countyover the coming months. The waste was initially headed for theWaste Isolation Pilot Plant\u00a0in Carlsbad, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[55,33,374],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35705"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35712,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35705\/revisions\/35712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}