Feds Shouldn't Stop Nuclear Waste Import

South Carolina lawmakers have closed that state's radioactive-waste dump to any waste that doesn't originate from there, New Jersey or Connecticut, leaving the Utah site as the only one to accept low-level radioactive waste from outside the region.

There's concern in South Carolina because the Italian waste could come through the Charleston port.

Bishop is a former lobbyist for Envirocare, EnergySolutions' predecessor, and has received more than $20,000 in campaign contributions from the company's executives and its political-action committee since being elected in 2002.

The company has also spent heavily on legislative races and succeeded in taking state lawmakers out of the approval process for accepting more waste than its license allows at the Clive, Utah, site.

Matheson, who has received nearly $11,000 in campaign contributions from the EnergySolutions PAC and its executives since 2006, contends the U.S. has no business accepting foreign waste because its domestic disposal sites are so limited.

The company has an agreement with Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman that prohibits it from seeking a license to expand the volume of waste it can accept. The agreement, however, is valid only as long as Huntsman, who is up for re-election this year, is in office.

EnergySolutions officials say Matheson's bill isn't necessary, and they insist the company has no plan to become the primary disposal source for the world's nuclear waste.