State officials contend in federal-court documents filed Tuesday that the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management has authority over EnergySolutions Inc.'s Clive facility in Tooele County, where the company wants to store low-level nuclear waste from Italy.

In a motion for summary judgment filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, Utah assistant attorney general Fred Nelson said the Northwest Compact has had authority over the Clive facility since 1991, when Envirocare, which later became EnergySolutions, asked the compact to store low-level radioactive waste. Since that time, the compact has responded to similar requests based on language in a 1985 federal act that created the compact.

"For 17 years, EnergySolutions has operated the Clive facility subject to the authority of the Northwest Compact," the motion states.

But EnergySolutions spokeswoman Jill Sigal said in a phone interview Tuesday that she hopes the court will agree with her company's rationale that "the Northwest Compact does not have authority over the Clive facility, because it's not a regional facility."

EnergySolutions is proposing to import up to 20,000 tons waste from Italy for recycling and processing at its facility in Tennessee, after which up to 1,600 tons of leftover waste would be transported to the Clive site for disposal.

Last May, the Northwest Compact asserted its authority by telling the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that EnergySolutions shouldn't be allowed to import the Italian waste. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and elected leaders in Tennessee have also opposed EnergySolutions' proposal.

EnergySolutions filed a federal lawsuit in May against the Northwest Compact, of which Utah is one of eight member states, seeking a ruling that the compact has no regulatory authority over the Clive facility because it is not a regional disposal facility created by the compact. Utah and the Rocky Mountain Low-Level Radioactive Waste Board — which includes member states Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico — have asked to intervene in the lawsuit.

Utah Department of Environmental Quality deputy director Bill Sinclair testified in an affidavit Tuesday that he was directed by Huntsman in May to vote in favor of the compact's resolution opposing the importation of foreign low-level radioactive waste. The state's Radiation Control Board also formally told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it opposed EnergySolutions' proposal.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said earlier this month that it will hold off on deciding about EnergySolutions' application to import the waste until the federal lawsuit is resolved.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com