The Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission (TNRCC) has rejected an application to build a low-level radioactive waste disposal site in Hudspeth County, Texas.
The site was to have disposed of low-level waste generated within the borders of Texas, Maine and Vermont. A compact between the states to share a disposal site was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton.
However, the site, about 15 miles from the Rio Grande River that separates the United States and Mexico, drew opposition from environmentalists. Opponents contended that radioactive materials could seep across the border. They lobbied the Texas panel and sponsored demonstrations and a six-day fast outside the mansion of Texas Gov George Bush Jr, who had expressed support for the licence application in principle if the facility were safe.
The US currently has only three sites that accept LLW: in Barnwell, South Carolina; Richland, Wash; and Utah
