••••• 26. Nuclear Waste Disposal Governor Clements position on nuclear waste disposal is two fold. First, with respect to low-level nuclear waste, WPC has maintained the position that "Texas will take care of Texas waste only." This position was first made clear during the Todd Shipyard incident of the fall 1979. Around October 1979 the three national low-level nuclear waste disposal sites (Washington, Nevada, and South Carolina) jointly announced that they would no longer accept waste generated from "out-of-state." While only a temporary embargo, the action was taken to draw national attention to the growing problem of low-level waste disposal. Shortly thereafter, Todd Ship- yards in Galveston began advertising on a national scale that it was in the business of low-level waste "storage" and as a result Todd's inventory of waste grew rapidly from 2000 barrels to well over 12,000. By November, the Texas press was running stories regularly about the Todd operation. At this point, Governor Clements launched a full scale investigation of the Todd facility. The Texas Health Department, the Air Control Board, and the Department of Water Resources all found Todd to be in violation of a myriad of licensing requirements. Governor Clements blasted Todd's lacka- daisical operation regularly in press conferences and pushed the Texas agencies to tighten their enforcement actions against Todd. Within a few weeks, Todd announced that it was getting out of the low-level waste storage business. These events helped shape the Governor's position on low-level waste disposal. Therefore, three of the Governor's legislative proposals in 1981 dealt specifically with low-level waste. All three measures passed and were signed into law. The legislative package provides for much tighter regulations on low-level waste "storage" and further establishes the Texas Low-Level Nuclear Waste Disposal Authority which will be responsible for building a permanent low- level waste facility to dispose of "Texas waste only." With respect to high-level waste, Governor Clements has cooperated with the U.S. Department of Energy in its exploratory drilling in salt formations in East Texas (around Palestine) and West Texas in the Palo Duro Basin. These activities have been closely scrutinized by Dr. Bill Fisher, Director of the Bureau of Economic Geology, U.T. and Dr. Milton Holloway, TENRAC. At the present time it appears that neither site in Texas will ever be selected as a high-level disposal facility. Furthermore, Governor Clements has stated publicly that he opposes the establishment of any high-level disposal site in Texas.
