Nuclear waste could be sent to San Juan

Lawmakers may have put the brakes on Envirocare's plans to take hotter radioactive wastes, but they may have left a big loophole for a San Juan County uranium mill to take similar wastes. And the company is considering it.

International Uranium Corp., which operates a uranium mill near Blanding that recycles radioactive waste to recover traces of uranium, is looking at a government cleanup project from Niagara Falls, N.Y. — waste from the Manhattan A-bomb project. Those are the same types of materials that Utah lawmakers had targeted earlier this year with legislation to prevent them from coming to Utah.

"We're still pursuing that," said Ron Hochstein, president of IUC. "But Niagara is probably three to four years down the road."

An atomic researcher in Niagara Falls believes the waste shouldn't be sent anywhere.

"This is nasty of the nastiest," said Louis Ricciuti, who says his community is now a wasteland bigger than the infamous Love Canal. "I'd like nothing better than to get rid of this waste, but I'm not willing to put it in anybody's back yard."

The waste — nuclear byproducts from making bombs — contains high-grade ores received from the former Belgian Congo. Over half the radium-bearing residues, which date to the 1940s, were stored at either Fernald, Ohio, or at a military base in Lewiston-Porter, 10 miles north of Niagara Falls.

Given that radioactive-waste giant Envirocare last year was seeking the radioactive wastes from Ohio that were hotter than its current state license, Rep. Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George, wanted to close a loophole that would have skirted current law requiring legislative and gubernatorial approval for hotter wastes.

So the 2004 Utah Legislature passed a law that bans Envirocare from taking any hotter waste. But the law — which Gov. Olene Walker is expected to sign Monday — exempted IUC.

"It was my understanding that IUC was not a player for this waste," said Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, who co-sponsored the bill. "If they are, and if this waste falls into that same category, then I'm certain the task force will investigate that and require the same type of legislation."

Bramble and Urquhart are co-chairmen of a task force looking at waste issues, including Utah's tax structure on waste companies. The task force meets through the end of this year and will make recommendations to the Legislature in 2005, when the real fireworks over waste are expected.