Firm tries again for waste permit

The head of a company that was spurned in its efforts to build a low-level radioactive waste facility in Tooele County said Thursday he's trying again — this time, pitching a plant that would handle even hotter materials.

"We need to show a need," Charles Judd, the president of Cedar Mountain Environmental Inc., to\ld the Deseret Morning News about his intention to propose a facility that will accept waste with a higher level of radioactivity than anything currently accepted in the state.

Last month, the Tooele County Commission rejected Judd's request for a permit to build a radioactive waste facility on 500 acres located next to Envirocare, saying he had not demonstrated a need for a second waste facility in the county.

Judd, a former president of Envirocare, announced this week he's reapplying for a permit at the same site. Thursday, he said the new application will seek to take radioactive waste that is both more and less contaminated than what's already coming to Utah.

Although he has not yet completed a detailed application, Judd estimated that about 10 percent to 15 percent of the waste the plant would handle would be hotter than wastes now going to Envirocare. The materials would be mostly soils, debris and concrete from government sources and possibly power plants.

He said he is not seeking a license to handle the controversial Class B and C wastes, primarily the by-products of decommissioned nuclear power plants. Instead, he wants to expand the types of less radioactive Class A wastes that would be brought into the state.

Such a proposal would need the approval of state regulators, both the governor and the Legislature, and the county commission. Last year, Envirocare ended up withdrawing an application to take hotter wastes from Ohio amid a public uproar.

Still, Judd said he believes his proposal can succeed. "We think they're good," he said of his chances of convincing public officials to go along with his plan. "We wouldn't be investing the large amount of money we are if we didn't think we wouldn't be successful."

Others aren't so sure.

"I think it would be a tough sell for them to make for any radioactive waste," said Rep. Stephen Urquhart, co-chairman of the state Legislative Task Force on Waste Policy. "If it's hotter than what we receive, it would be that much more difficult."