EnergySolutions is willing to limit foreign waste

EnergySolutions has an application pending before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to import 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste from Italy. It is the largest import license request for nuclear waste the NRC has ever received.

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.

The proposal has led to widespread opposition in Utah and other states the waste would travel through. It has also sparked a bill in Congress that would ban the importation of all low-level radioactive foreign waste unless it originated here or came from an American military facility.

The bill's sponsors worry that the United States won't have enough space for domestic waste if it accepts foreign waste.

During testimony in Washington, D.C., before a House subcommittee on the bill, EnergySolutions CEO Steve Creamer said capacity isn't a problem and he wouldn't do anything that might mean domestic customers have no place to dispose of waste.

"We do not want to bring wholesale radioactive waste into this country," Creamer said.

He said the intent in importing the waste is to "have an American company build a strong position internationally."

When the company went public last year, it listed its Utah disposal site as one of its competitive strengths.

In prepared remarks, Creamer told lawmakers that EnergySolutions is increasingly looking for international business, including the decommissioning of nuclear reactors in the United Kingdom.