Western states rebuff plan for Italian nuclear waste in Utah

EnergySolutions Inc. is applying for a federal license to import 20,000 tons of waste from four Italian nuclear reactors, with a portion of it to be buried at its private disposal site in Clive, Utah.

But members of the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management said their rules would need to be changed to allow roughly five or six rail cars of waste a year to be buried there.

The group's decision, however, doesn't mean the waste can't enter the country. A spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is reviewing the import license, doubts that the unanimous vote will kill the application.

The federal public comment period on the license application ends June 10.

"They could say we'd still like to bring the material for processing in Tennessee and dispose of it in some other way, presumably exporting the rest of it back to Italy," NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre said in a phone interview.

Environmentalist oppose the shipments and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman has pledged to keep his state from becoming a dumping ground for global nuclear waste.

"EnergySolutions is a bully that's used to getting its way," said John Urgo of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, which opposes the shipment. "The Northwest Interstate Compact and Gov. Huntsman refused to be bullied."

Congress created the compact in 1985 as a regional system for managing low-level radioactive waste. The compact's designated facility is in Richland, Wash., which accepts waste from Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Montana and Wyoming.

EnergySolutions takes waste from other states. Earlier this week, the company filed a lawsuit to challenge the compact's ability to regulate shipments to Utah.