Utah Takes Nuclear Waste From States With Own Dump

EnergySolutions officials say the Utah facility has reached about 46 percent of its capacity, though the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it probably won't be full for decades.

Still, U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who is concerned about the site's capacity, has introduced a bill in Congress prohibiting the importation of foreign radioactive waste, saying space for domestic waste needs to be preserved.

He also said he is worried about the "inherent transportation dangers to the public and to the environment from radioactive waste shipments through our state," even though spills are rare.

Environmental groups are more blunt.

"At any point there could be ... routine exposure along the way, there could be accidents, fires or just other kinds of crashes," said Diane D'Arrigo, radioactive waste project director for the Takoma Park, Md.-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service. "The more nuclear shipping we have, the more accidents we're going to have."

The Utah site was never intended to be a compact facility. The compact to which Utah belongs forbids its member states from sending their waste to Utah. Instead, their waste goes to Washington's Hanford site.