Compact, Utah seek say with NRC on foreign waste

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission now knows what path Utah wants it to follow as the NRC considers present and future license applications to dispose of any foreign generated low-level radioactive waste at EnergySolutions' Clive facility in Tooele County.

"They need to be attune to the fact that we need to be notified," said Bill Sinclair, who represents Utah on the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management. The compact once again discussed foreign-waste imports at its meeting last week in Portland.

The need for that clarity arose after state and regional regulators learned this past year that the NRC had already allowed the Clive site to accept small amounts of radioactive waste that originated in Canada, France, Germany and Mexico. EnergySolutions officials said Tuesday the waste has been in the form of ash after an incineration process or slag from melted metal, and then only in "very" small amounts.

Now, however, the company wants to store up to 1,600 tons of low-level radioactive waste that would come from decommissioned nuclear power plants in Italy. That proposal prompted opposition last May from the Northwest Compact and an assertion to the NRC that the regional eight-member compact has authority over the Clive site.

Sinclair said he wants the NRC to allow the Northwest Compact, and in effect Utah, to review each NRC application on a case-by-case basis when there's a proposal to store foreign waste at the Clive site. Gov. Jon Hunstman Jr. has made it clear to Sinclair he opposes any proposals to import waste originating outside the U.S. for disposal in Utah.

In years past, Sinclair said Tuesday, the regulatory path hasn't always been made clear, that is, until the Northwest Compact learned the NRC was overlooking the authority the compact believes it has over the Clive site.

EnergySolutions spokeswoman Jill Sigal said her company has not had any "secrets" about importing, processing or disposing of foreign radioactive waste.

"EnergySolutions is compliant with the law," Sigal said. "We're going to continue to be compliant with the law."

Sigal said the Northwest Compact may have authority over another site within its eight member states, but not the Clive site, which she noted is not a regional facility. The Clive site, she added, is licensed to operate by the state and that the NRC, not the compact, handles applications for disposing of foreign radioactive waste.