In this letter, Governor Perry requests that the Texas legislature develop a solution for the management of spent nuclear fuel within Texas, since current federal plans for spent nuclear fuel disposal are not credible. The report by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which summarizes spent nuclear fuel management in the US, is attached to the letter as a reference resource.

In this report, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality provides a concise history of spent nuclear fuel management in the US, briefly discussing disposal and transportation but focusing mostly on storage. The current status of NRC efforts to evaluate issues related to storage are mentioned. The report also describes the waste storage situation at the relatively young 4 nuclear reactor units at 2 sites in Texas and the two small research reactors at the University of Texas and Texas A&M.

This report provides an overview of the scope and status of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Salt Repository Project (SRP) at the time when the project was terminated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987. The report can be used as a "roadmap" into the 10-year program of siting a geologic repository for high-level nuclear waste in rock salt formations. Its purpose is to aid persons interested in the information developed during the course of this effort.

This report summarizes the regional geologic and environmental characterizations that have been completed for the Permian region of study, and describes the procedure used to identify study areas for the next phase of investigation. The factors evaluated in the Permian region fall into three broad areas: health and safety, environmental and socioeconomic, and engineering and economic considerations.