Utah Gov Staying Mum On Foreign Nuke Waste Ban

BROCK VERGAKIS

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Gov. Gary Herbert's spokeswoman says he is not going to take a position on whether the U.S. should ban the importation of foreign nuclear waste.

EnergySolutions Inc. wants to import up to 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste from Italy's shuttered nuclear power program through the ports of New Orleans or Charleston, S.C. After processing in Tennessee, about 1,600 tons would be disposed of in Utah.

It's the largest single amount of foreign waste the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ever been asked to allow into the country.

The import application has drawn a record number of public comments — most in opposition. Responding to public outcry, Utah officials tried to block the shipment through a congressionally chartered interstate compact system. But a federal judge ruled that the compact doesn't have the authority to regulate EnergySolutions' disposal facility. The state is appealing that ruling.

U.S. Reps. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., along with several Republicans, contend foreign waste shouldn't be allowed into the country because the U.S. needs to preserve its disposal space for domestic waste. EnergySolutions' facility in the western Utah desert is the only one currently available to 36 states, although an NRC official testified last year that capacity there isn't a short-term problem.