Apr 29 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune

Radioactive waste that Italy wants buried in Utah might be too hot to handle here.

Critics looking at technical aspects of EnergySolutions' plans to import 20,000 tons of cleanup waste from Italy's nuclear reactors say state and federal regulators need more information before signing off on the Salt Lake City company's proposal.

The company's Italy waste plans have already come under fire on policy grounds, with Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. promising to use the state's vote on a regional waste panel to stop future foreign waste imports and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah seeking federal legislation to do the same.

Company spokesman John Ward said EnergySolutions will screen the waste from Italy's defunct nuclear program four times:

--before sending it across the Atlantic;

--prior to recycling it at the company's Tennessee treatment plant;

--after usable metal is melted and recast as shielding; and

--before about 1,600 tons of Class A waste is buried in Tooele County, about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City.

Anything too radioactive will be returned to Italy, under an export license that the company also has applied for, he added. "We won't even begin transporting any material that we can't accept at Bear Creek [Tenn.] and Clive [Utah]."

But Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, said the company's import application before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission suggests the material is so radioactive overall it would be Class C waste -- and too hot to be permitted under state law.

"It's very clear that some of this is going to be Class C," said Makhijani, criticizing the lack of details.

"The burden of proof is on EnergySolutions to provide the detailed information that regulators need to make a prudent decision on this request," said Vanessa Pierce, the director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, who released Makhijani's findings on Monday.

"It's appalling that the NRC and other regulators haven't asked for more" details, she said.

State regulators in Utah and Tennessee have already told the NRC the shipments would be permissible.

Others have raised concerns similar to HEAL's.

Members of the Utah Radiation Control Board questioned EnergySolutions in March about ensuring the waste is safe for Utah.

And Marty Carson, a nuclear industry consultant in South Carolina, urged the NRC in February to require more information to demonstrate that too-hot waste will not be diluted so that it can meet Utah's standards.

"The application doesn't tell enough," said Carson in a telephone interview.

Carson calls himself pro-industry and pro-nuclear, yet he says federal regulators have allowed too many gaps in EnergySolutions' import request.

"I would be opposed to any company engaged in this work the way it's described" in the Italy waste application, he said. "We need to deal with this [waste] properly."

RADIOACTIVE WASTE

--States, including Utah, generally follow federal guidelines for categorizing and disposing of low-level radioactive waste.

--Class A waste must lose its radioactive punch within 100 years, regulations say. Utah's law allows nuclear waste no more radioactive than this.

--Class B waste is handled more carefully and disposed of with a 300-year safety period in mind. Class C must be contained so that it cannot become a health and environmental hazard for about 500 years, according to the regulations.

--In 2005, Utah lawmakers, with the backing of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and EnergySolutions, barred Class B and C waste from the state.