Texas doesn’t want N-waste from outside, says Richards

AUSTIN — Texas isn’t interested in becoming a dumping ground for low-level radioactive waste from other states, Gov. Ann Richards’ office said Wednesday.

“To turn it all away is the preferred thing to do,” said Bill Cryer, the governor’s press secretary.

All states are required by federal law to either build low-level nuclear waste dumps or plan to send their wastes to other states. Texas has chosen a site in far West Texas for its facility.

Cryer said federal law specifies that states which enter compacts then could reject waste from any other state. The governor has been concerned that Texas might be forced to take material from a large state, such as New York or California, if it doesn’t have such an agreement, he said.

In that vein, Texas had been talking with two New England states, Vermont and Maine, about a possible compact in which they would send their low-level waste to Texas.

But Cryer said those talks have been suspended, at least temporarily, based on advice from Texas Attorney General Dan Morales.

Morales, in a Sept. 11 letter to Richards, said he believes Texas has legal grounds to refuse to accept radioactive waste from any other state.

“There is a reasonable basis for a legal prediction that, in the absence of a compact, Texas can successfully provide for disposal of low-level radioactive waste generated in Texas, without sacrificing our ability to exclude out-of-state waste,” Morales said.

“As a matter of sound public policy, each state, if not each locality, should take care of its residents’ wastes within its own borders,” he said.

Based on that opinion, Cryer said, the talks with Maine and Vermont had been suspended “for right now, until we get maybe a more definitive opinion from the attorney general.”

“It may be a temporary thing. If the attorney general issues an opinion that’s more far-reaching than the advice he’s already given in that letter, then the talks could be back on,” Cryer said.

He said one reason Texas was talking to Maine and Vermont is “they’re small states. By taking radioactive waste from a small state, you preclude being forced to take radioactive waste from a New York or California.”

Richards has written Morales, saying, “I pray that your legal judgment and your prediction are accurate, and that we are not exposing ourselves to becoming the nation’s dumping ground.”

Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, meanwhile, said he hopes for a more detailed legal opinion.

Bullock said his staff interprets the federal law as indicating that a deal with another state “would give Texas the ability to reject waste from non-compact partners.

“Because I want the best possible protection for Texas, I want to be dead sure that the failure or refusal to enter a compact agreement does not place us at risk of being forced to accept radioactive waste from other states,” Bullock wrote.