One Texas Oil Town Actually Wants the Nation’s Nuclear Waste

As Blake Roberts bounced along a single-lane dirt road in his red Ford Super Duty pickup he pointed to a pumpjack bobbing in the West Texas heat.

“Everything we do revolves around oil,” Roberts said as he neared his home outside the town of Andrews in the heart of the booming Permian Basin oil field.

Blake Roberts

Photographer: Sergio Flores/Bloomberg

But Roberts, 29, has his eye on what he hopes will be the next big thing for the area: nuclear waste. As president of the local chamber of commerce, he knows that oil booms are inevitably followed by busts.

He is supporting a plan ...