The dispute involves a relatively small amount of waste coming from Italy for dumping in Tooele County, but Ward said EnergySolutions is putting up a fight because the disposal piece of the puzzle is critical to the whole operation taking place. "I don't think there's another place it could go," he said about the 1,600 tons of waste left over after processing.

EnergySolutions' lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment to agree with company CEO Steve Creamer's claim that the NRC has the "scientific and technical expertise to evaluate import license applications pursuant to the regulatory criteria."

The company's lawsuit wants a judge to say that "the Northwest Compact does not have regulatory authority over the Clive facility, which is a private commercial facility rather than a regional facility created by the Compact"; "the U.S. Constitution does not allow the Northwest Compact to discriminate between identical domestic and foreign materials handled at the Clive facility"; and "any effort by the Northwest Compact to restrict receipt of international (low-level radioactive waste) is pre-empted by federal statutes and regulations."

Creamer said in a statement that it is his intention to have a judge "clarify" what authority the compact has over what he called an "important international project."

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com