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The EPA handed U.S. Ecology Nevada a land disposal restrictions variance this week for high-mercury subcategory wastes, a narrow but consequential exemption that lets the company continue handling materials that would otherwise be prohibited from land disposal under RCRA. Variances like this don't move quietly through the regulatory process. They require the agency to find that the waste poses no migration threat to groundwater, which means U.S. Ecology Nevada cleared a meaningful evidentiary bar. The White House also dropped two executive orders on quantum computing in the same week, one pushing federal agencies to accelerate quantum technology development and another directing a transition away from encryption systems vulnerable to quantum attacks. The timing of both orders together is less a coincidence than a policy statement.

The EPA is reviewing a land disposal restrictions variance for U.S. Ecology Nevada covering high mercury subcategory hazardous wastes. The variance, if granted, would allow disposal methods that would otherwise be prohibited under standard land disposal restrictions for mercury-bearing waste streams.

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