Matheson urges commission to rule on EnergySolutions' Clive facility

A Utah congressman has joined some of his D.C. colleagues in calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to declare if EnergySolutions' Clive facility falls under the regulatory authority of the Northwest Compact.

The Tuesday letter authored by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and several other lawmakers echoes a question already poised to a federal judge and under consideration after a motion hearing in Salt Lake City late last month.

Specifically, in its attempts to import low-level radioactive waste from Italy for storage in Tooele County, EnergySolutions officials have argued that its Clive facility falls outside the regulatory purview of the compact because Congress did not expressly grant that much power to the compact.

EnergySolutions had sought a permit from the NRC for disposal, but the commission said it would first wait until the federal court ruling.

But Matheson, joined by Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass.,chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, are pushing for an answer now.

"The state of Utah should absolutely not be forced to accept radioactive waste from Italy or any other foreign country," Markey said. "No state should ever be faced with such a possibility of being turned into a multinational nuclear waste dump."

The lawmakers' letter, according to a press release, was sent in response to the objections raised by the state of Utah to EnergySolutions' proposal, as well as objections raised by the Northwest Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste.

Critics of EnergySolutions' position argued in court that any ruling that would undermine the authority of the compact would eviscerate the states' abilities to regulate waste within their own borders.

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