Bill Text: TX SB1021 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Comm Sub

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Bill Title: Relating to the operations of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact waste disposal facility.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 2)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-04-10 - Placed on intent calendar [SB1021 Detail]

Download: Texas-2019-SB1021-Comm_Sub.html

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By: Seliger, Birdwell S.B. No. 1021
(In the Senate - Filed February 22, 2019; March 7, 2019,
read first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources &
Economic Development; April 8, 2019, reported adversely, with
favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 7,
Nays 2; April 8, 2019, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1021 By: Zaffirini

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the operations of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste
Disposal Compact waste disposal facility.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter F, Chapter 401, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Sections 401.2065 and 401.2066 to read as
follows:
Sec. 401.2065. RESERVED CAPACITY FOR PARTY STATE WASTE.
(a) The following are reserved for the exclusive use of party
state compact waste disposal in the compact waste disposal
facility:
(1) the greater of:
(A) three million total cubic feet; or
(B) the required volume identified by the
commission under Section 401.208; and
(2) the greater of:
(A) two million total curies; or
(B) the required curie capacity identified by the
commission under Section 401.208.
(b) Of the reserved volume and curie capacity described by
Subsection (a):
(1) 80 percent is reserved for compact waste generated
in the host state; and
(2) 20 percent is reserved for compact waste generated
in nonhost party states.
Sec. 401.2066. CORRECTION FOR DECAY IN DETERMINING
CAPACITY. The commission shall correct for radioactive decay in
determining licensed disposal curie capacity in a compact waste
disposal facility under this subchapter.
SECTION 2. Sections 401.207(e-2) and (g), Health and Safety
Code, are amended to read as follows:
(e-2) The commission's executive director, on completion of
the study under Section 401.208, may prohibit the license holder
from accepting any additional nonparty compact waste if the
commission determines from the study that the capacity of the
facility will be limited, regardless of whether the facility has
the constructed capacity required by Section 401.2075(a) [limit
under Subsection (f) has been reached].
(g) The commission shall assess a surcharge for the disposal
of nonparty compact waste at the compact waste disposal facility.
The surcharge is five [20] percent of the total contracted rate
under Section 401.2456 and must be assessed in addition to the total
contracted rate under that section.
SECTION 3. Subchapter F, Chapter 401, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Section 401.2075 to read as follows:
Sec. 401.2075. LIMITATION ON NONPARTY COMPACT WASTE.
(a) The compact waste disposal facility license holder may accept
nonparty compact waste at the facility only if:
(1) the waste is authorized by the compact commission;
and
(2) the facility has not less than three years' worth
of constructed capacity based on the average amount of party state
compact waste disposed in the preceding five years, not including:
(A) low-level radioactive waste from
decommissioned nuclear electric generation facilities;
(B) oversized low-level radioactive waste
components; or
(C) low-level radioactive waste from
nonrecurring events.
(b) If a compact waste disposal facility does not have
sufficient constructed capacity as described by Subsection (a), in
order to be permitted to accept nonparty compact waste, the compact
waste disposal facility license holder must:
(1) add constructed capacity sufficient to meet the
requirements of Subsection (a); or
(2) file and have approved by the commission a
performance bond acceptable to the commission conditioned on the
construction of additional constructed capacity sufficient to meet
the requirements of Subsection (a).
(c) If a nuclear electric generation facility in a party
state has notified the federal commission that the facility will be
decommissioned, and the time-phased decommissioning schedule and
the Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report indicate that
low-level radioactive waste is to be disposed of at the compact
waste disposal facility, the compact waste disposal facility
license holder must have constructed adequate disposal capacity at
the time of the disposal of waste from the decommissioning.
(d) The compact waste disposal facility license holder must
obtain an amendment to the facility operating license to increase
the allowable curie capacity by two million curies when the compact
waste disposal facility has reached 80 percent of the total curies
for which the facility is licensed.
SECTION 4. Subchapter F, Chapter 401, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Section 401.2465 to read as follows:
Sec. 401.2465. WASTE DISPOSAL FEE COMPARISON. (a) The
compact waste disposal facility license holder shall conduct and
provide to the commission an annual comparison of party state and
nonparty state compact waste disposal fees. The comparison:
(1) must include:
(A) the total invoiced compact waste disposal
fees;
(B) the total volume of compact waste disposed;
and
(C) an average disposal fee calculated by
dividing the total invoiced compact waste disposal fees by the
total volume of compact waste disposed; and
(2) may not include information regarding disposal
fees or disposal volume for:
(A) low-level radioactive waste from
decommissioned nuclear electric generation facilities;
(B) oversized low-level radioactive waste
components; or
(C) low-level radioactive waste from
nonrecurring events.
(b) If the average compact waste disposal fee charged to
party state generators exceeds the average compact waste disposal
fee charged to nonparty state generators, the compact waste
disposal facility license holder must issue a rebate for the
preceding year's fees to the party state generators in an amount
sufficient to reduce the average compact waste disposal fee charged
to party state generators after the rebate to $1 less than the
average compact waste disposal fee charged to nonparty state
generators.
(c) The compact waste disposal facility license holder
shall allocate the rebate issued under Subsection (b) according to
the fractional amount of the total compact waste disposal fees paid
by each generator based on the compact waste disposal facility
license holder's records for the preceding year.
(d) Not more often than once per year, on written request of
a nuclear electric generation utility operating in a party state,
the compact waste disposal facility license holder shall:
(1) retain an independent auditor, who must be
approved by the compact waste disposal facility license holder and
the utility making the request, to evaluate the computation of the
average compact waste disposal fee and rebate described by this
section; and
(2) not later than the 30th day after the date the
license holder receives the final audit report, make a copy of the
report available to the requesting utility, the governor, the
lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house of representatives,
and each standing committee of the legislature with jurisdiction
over environmental matters.
SECTION 5. Sections 401.271(a) and (b), Health and Safety
Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) A holder of a license issued by the commission under
this chapter that authorizes the disposal of a radioactive
substance from other persons shall remit each quarter an amount
equal to five [10] percent of the license holder's gross receipts
received from disposal operations under the [a] license [issued
under this chapter that occur after the effective date of the Act
enacting this section as follows:
[(1) five percent shall be remitted to the comptroller
for deposit to the credit of the general revenue fund; and
[(2) five percent shall be remitted] to the host
county in accordance with Sections 401.244(b) and (d).
(b) Subsection (a) does not apply to [compact waste or
federal facility waste as defined by Section 401.2005 or]
industrial solid waste as defined by Section 361.003.
SECTION 6. The following provisions of the Health and
Safety Code are repealed:
(1) Sections 401.207(d-1), (d-2), (d-3), (e), (e-1),
(f), and (h-1);
(2) Section 401.2445; and
(3) Sections 401.2456(b), (c), (d), and (e).
SECTION 7. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.
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