Texas to allow 36 states to dump toxic waste
Nuclear waste from 36 states will be deposited in a Texas landfill according to the ruling of a Texas commission. The landfill is in far west Texas along the New Mexico border.
The 5-2 vote by the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Commission came after last-minute legal maneuvering on Monday failed to delay the meeting, environmentalists warned the dump would pollute groundwater and more than 5,000 people commented on the plan.
While the facility will now be able to accept waste from three dozen states, the commission guaranteed Vermont 20% capacity in the landfill. Vermont has only one nuclear facility, but since it plans to phase it out in the next 30 to 40 years it sought to promise itself space for the waste that process would create.
The expansion stokes the debate over where, and if, nuclear waste can be dumped in the United States, an argument that has taken on new importance since President Barack Obama vowed to decrease the country's dependence on foreign oil, partly by building more nuclear power plants.
In the end, however, the site's owner, Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists, convinced the commission the West Texas landfill was a secure solution to permanently dump radioactive waste. Until now, the site has only accepted waste from Texas, Vermont and the federal government.
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