Utah Takes Nuclear Waste From States With Own Dump

BROCK VERGAKIS

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Despite having their own radioactive waste dump, three states have shipped millions of cubic feet of waste across the country this decade to a private Utah facility that is the only one available to 36 other states, according to an Associated Press analysis of U.S. Department of Energy records.

The shipments are stoking concerns that waste from Connecticut, New Jersey and South Carolina is taking up needed space in Utah, unnecessarily creating potential shipping hazards and undermining the government's intent for states to dispose of their own waste on a regional basis.

"It's clear that the low-level waste system in this country is broken when there are states with their own dump sites sending tons of radioactive garbage across the country for disposal in Utah," said Vanessa Pierce, executive director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, an advocacy group. "The compact system, which was supposed to protect states from becoming the country's dumping ground, has been totally derailed." ...