Radioactive waste will bypass Utah

Despite efforts by some Utahns to woo radioactive waste shipments from Fernald, Ohio, the Department of Energy's contractor now says it has chosen a primary route through Arizona and New Mexico that doesn't pose the risk of Utah's harsh winters.

Two competing Utah proposals had hoped to persuade DOE's contractor Fluor Fernald to ship the waste by rail as a safer alternative, but they have been left out in the cold.

Charles Judd, president of Cedar Mountain Environmental, lobbied Fernald officials to send the waste to a rail-to-truck "transload" facility he wants to build in Tooele County, where he hopes to open a low-level radioactive waste dump next to a competing facility — Envirocare of Utah.

Envirocare was the top choice to take the Fernald waste via rail but opposition to it prompted the company to dump its plans. So now the contractor says its only choice is the Nevada Test Site.

Judd has now backed off on his plans to pursue the waste.

"We're still pursuing a transfer facility," Judd said. "But we are not pursuing the Fernald waste at this time."

Judd's partner, Stephen Bunn, had also proposed building a separate but similar facility in Beaver County near Milford. Bunn received approval for the proposal a year ago but has yet to build anything on the property. And Beaver County officials, although supportive of a transload facility, figure the proposal is dead.

"It hasn't been discussed in earnest for a year," said Rob Adams, economic development director for Beaver County.

Fernald officials are on a fast track to move the waste by the truckload and won't be using railways to do it.

"Since Envirocare is out, and the intermodal facility isn't up and running, I just don't see it happening," said Dave Hinaman, a Fluor Fernald spokesman. "It's an awful lot of ducks to line up."

As soon as October, 15 flatbed trucks carrying highly concentrated radium-bearing waste will leave Ohio and travel across the nation's highways over a 13-month period to the DOE-owned Nevada Test Site.

"We may use the northern route," Hinaman said of a path which includes I-80 through Parleys Canyon to I-15 and south to Nevada. "But since the majority of time will be spent traveling during winter months, it would obviously dictate using the southern route more frequently."