Western states try to close foreign-waste loophole

Two regional groups that regulate storage or radioactive waste met Wednesday to discuss closing a loophole that could affect EnergySolutions Inc.'s proposal to store nuclear waste from Italy at a site in Tooele County.

The eight-state Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management met in Portland, Ore., with the Southeast Compact Commission for Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management, which has Tennessee as one of its six member states. The center of attention was a proposal by EnergySolutions to store nuclear waste from Italy at a site in Tooele County by routing it through Tennessee.

Utah's governor-appointed Northwest Compact representative, Bill Sinclair, said his group's goal was to convince their colleagues from the Southeast Compact to close a loophole that could allow waste from other countries to be shipped into Utah.

The Northwest Compact wanted to slam shut a back door that has to do with how foreign waste is defined once it is recycled and processed. If radioactive materials came from a foreign country, Sinclair said, any waste left over after processing or recycling here needs to be shipped back overseas and not find a final resting place on U.S. soil.

Last May, the Northwest Compact drew up a resolution that it sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, asserting the compact's authority to stop an EnergySolutions' proposal to store up to 1,600 tons of low-level radioactive waste at the private company's Clive facility in Utah. That waste would arrive in Tooele County after processing and recycling of up to 20,000 tons of waste at EnergySolutions' Tennessee facility. The waste would originate from decommissioned nuclear power plants in Italy.

Sinclair said the basic message the Southeast Compact got was that once foreign waste is processed, it should still be considered foreign waste and not mixed in with other waste and collectively defined as domestic waste. Sinclair said the Southeast Compact agreed to inform waste generators that they need to "pay attention" to requirements in edicts of other compacts where domestic waste is transported for disposal.

"We were happy they would volunteer to do that. They want to support our efforts in that matter," Sinclair said about the Southeast Compact agreeing to help out. "We think the loophole's closed."

Sinclair said the Northwest Compact will also send a letter to EnergySolutions, emphasizing the need for the company to document and prove that no foreign waste is being shipped to its Clive facility because of mixing waste from different sources, some of which may be in other countries.