A billionaire wants to open a giant radioactive dump in West Texas

— By Josh Harkinson

Tue Mar. 29, 2011 12:01 AM PDT
The nuclear crisis in Japan has provided a vivid reminder that one of the biggest conundrums of atomic power is what do do with all of the resulting radioactive waste. Harold Simmons believes he's found an answer. The Texas billionaire and corporate raider is opening a nuclear waste dump in West Texas, despite objections from environmentalists and the state's own experts. One of the Lone Star State's largest donors to Republican causes, Simmons expects his that privately-owned site will become the nation's most sought after radioactive waste repository.

The reclusive, litigious 79-year-old made his personal fortune from garbage collection, drug stores, metals, and chemicals. His net worth is valued at $5.7 billion, making him the 55th richest American, according to Forbes. He's shared his money—more than $10 million of it—with conservative politicians and causes, bankrolling attack ads against John Kerry and Barack Obama and giving Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry at least $1.2 million. He has been fined for violating campaign donation limits and outed by one of his daughters for paying her to let him make political contributions in her name. He's been called the "King of Superfund Sites" for his work disposing of hazardous waste. Last year, D Magazine named him "Dallas' most evil genius."

Much of Simmons' genius resides in how he's leveraged his political investments. In 1995, he bought a hazardous waste disposal company, Waste Control Specialists, and set about converting an isolated spot in Andrews County into a nuclear waste dump. After six years of lobbying the state legislature, WCS convinced it to pass a law authorizing private companies to be licensed to handle radioactive waste.

Two licenses sought by WCS would allow it to accept a total of 60 million cubic feet of low-level radioactive waste from federal and state sources, including nuclear reactors, weapons programs, and hospitals. (That's roughly enough waste to fill half of Cowboys Stadium.) The licenses didn't need detailed approval from federal nuclear regulators because the dump wouldn't handle the highest grades of radioactive waste; unlike the proposed Yucca Mountain dump in Nevada, for example, the 1,338-acre WCS dump can't accept spent nuclear fuel rods.


more

http://motherjones.com/environment/2011/03/texas-nuclear-waste-dump

;-)

because GWB lives in Dallas now...

"Jawbs, we 'r gettin' jawbs! Thank the lawd!"

Then the company will hire a bunch of undocumented workers instead....

the Sierra Club is suddenly their best friend.

the Sierra Club is suddenly their best friend.

You misspelled gettin' should have been gittin'!
Thank ye
Teh Spellin' Po-Leese

. . . its talons and wings glowing with Cerenkov radiation.

Get ready to defend Harold Simmons' property rights, y'all!

We are having to fight the Rethugs harder than anyone in this country against this BS, and what do we get from our side? A bunch of schadenfreude directed our way too since we happen to live here.
So when you make jokes about Texans "glowing " or "getting what they deserve" in environmental degradation, you're talking about us liberal and progressives here too.
Shame.

Let the obstruction of the political south depend on the upwind integrity of unfettered commerce.

so naturally he has no problem dumping in West TX. I found an interesting resource about radioactive waste.

http://www.radwaste.org/