Update “Italian Waste in Utah”

In mid March, EnergySolutions pushed to import about 20,000 tons of low-level nuclear waste from Italy, to be buried in Utah on a site owned by the company. This move was met by great resistance by Utah Radiation Control Board and other members of the Utah community. On Thursday May 8, 2008, eight Western states moved to stop EnergySolutions’ decision to import nuclear waste from Italy and bury at their Utah landfill. Members of the Northwest Compact on Low-level Radioactive voted to change the company’s contract with the Salt Lake City nuclear waste company so that foreign waste will no longer be permitted. In addition they moved to close a loophole which had allowed the company bury processed waste from Tennessee, in Utah as well.

Even Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. has said that he will use his power to block Italian waste import until a national policy can be set.
All this is happening while the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering the company’s desire to import 20,000 tons of waste to processing plant near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The company would then sell the recovered metal it produced after processing, for shielding, while also disposing of 1,600 tons of waste at the company’s landfill in Utah.

However, a problem arose when EnergySolution declared that the decision made on Thrusday was irrelevant, saying that the decision does not apply to their private facility. Of all the sites, the one in Utah is one of three which is not owned by the government. Thus, because the site in Utah is privately owned, EnergySolutions feels that the decision will not affect them. The general counsel for EnergySolutions has promised to continue to limit importing of foreign waste to 5%, even though the site can handle far more.

It seems that a fight is still ahead, though it is clear that Utahans are not excited about the idea of foreign waste being buried in their ‘back yard’. John Urgo of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah thanked all those who have fought against burying foreign waste in Utah, saying that their resistance has confirmed “that it was never the intent of state or federal law to open up Utah and the U.S. to the world’s nuclear waste,” thus, he said “we can all breathe a sigh of relief that someone was finally willing to reign in their global nuclear ambitions.”

Fight waste and pollution with Starry Night Lights

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 4:35 am and is filed under Do It Yourself, Starry Night Lights, energy star, environment, global warming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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