Western states rebuff plan for Italian nuclear waste in Utah

The company concedes it has "coordinated some of its activities with the Northwest Compact" in the past, but insists the panel has no authority over what it handles because the Utah site is privately owned.

After the vote Thursday, EnergySolutions executives said they're hoping a federal judge rules in their favor.

"We don't believe they have the authority to make decisions like they did that govern our operations," Val Christensen, vice president and general counsel, told The Associated Press.

EnergySolutions wants to bring the Italian waste through New Orleans or Charleston, S.C., for processing and incineration in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The company then wants to bury 1,600 tons in Utah, home of the country's largest and only privately owned low-level radioactive waste dump.

In a related move, compact members approved a resolution that seeks to stop other foreign waste from being shipped to Utah after it has been reclassified as domestic waste in Tennessee, a practice since 2006 with incinerated waste from countries such as Canada, France and Germany.

The reclassification, authorized by Tennessee regulators, resolved EnergySolutions' issues with separating waste from different sources -an inaccurate, costly and potentially dangerous process, company officials said.

But the changes also mean that some foreign waste incinerated in Tennessee likely has been buried at the EnergySolutions site in Utah.

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Associated Press writer Brock Vergakis in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

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