Elemental mercury will be stored at a facility in West Texas, after the U.S. Department of Energy selected a nuclear waste disposal company to hold the chemical until technology is developed to treat and permanently dispose of it.
Waste Control Specialists' (WCS) Andrews facility was selected in December, per a DOE news release, to store the mercury as the DOE works to achieve its assignment through the 2008 Mercury Export Ban Act which prohibited the element from being exported from the U.S. as of January 2013.
The act also prohibited federal agencies from selling or distributing metallic mercury, including stockpiles held by the DOE and the Department of Defense.
A third provision in the act called on the DOE to designate at least one facility for long-term storage and management. That's where WCS came in. Matt LaBarge, the company's vice president of federal programs said the mercury will come from across the country, from generator sites and gold mines. He said WCS was chosen because it has the right permits and the capacity. "To prevent mercury from going to
other countries where there's no good storage, they decided to keep it here," he said. "We were selected for that process."
Labarge said WCS' current contract with the DOE calls for the waste to be stored for a year and a half, but that could be extended.
