The Nation's Nuclear Waste Dump ???

Apparently Texas is still on track to become the nation's nuclear waste dump. You can read about it here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/15/nuclear-waste-texas/

I have written about this issue before:

https://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2014/02/texas-is-becoming-nuclear-waste-dump.html

https://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2014/08/texas-americas-new-nuclear-waste-dump.html

https://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2015/02/will-texas-store-nations-high-level.html

https://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2015/05/will-taiwans-nuclear-waste-come-to-texas.html

https://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2016/04/did-obama-just-screw-texas-with.html

https://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2017/04/will-texas-become-us-high-level.html

A few things ought to be clear:

• In spite of the billions of dollars spent constructing the Yucca Mountain facility, the WIPP, the DWPF, and other federally funded facilities, the nation still has no overall plan for how to handle nuclear waste and spent fuel - other than to hand the process over to private contractors.
• Once all this material is sent to Texas, it will never leave. No one else wants it, and no one ever will.
• There is a huge overall complex being built in western Texas and eastern New Mexico, with interdependent parts in the two states. There appears to have been a plan all along to do this, with the planners taking incremental steps on a desired path to reach their goals.

In light of the apparently inevitable expansion of these facilities, we ought to consider a few things:

• All storage facilities, no matter how well designed and built, will leak. Are we prepared for that fact?
• The facilities are located in what I would call cartel land. We apparently cannot stop the flow of refugees across our southern border. Can we really protect all this nuclear material from threats of sabotage, theft, or terrorism?
• There have been credible reports of unknown drone aircraft operating around such facilities in the US. Since allegedly no one knows who owns these drones or what they have been doing, can we be certain they don't pose a threat?

You want my advice? Texas should convene a blue ribbon panel to determine what is in the best interests of the people of Texas. In my view as a former Texan, those interests should dictate limiting such facilities to the storage of spent fuel and nuclear waste generated in Texas. Let the other states store their own waste.

As the saying goes, DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS !!!