Utah takes radioactive waste from 3 states with own dumps

Despite having a radioactive waste dump of their own, three states have shipped millions of cubic feet of waste across the country this decade to a private facility in Utah that's the only one available to 36 other states, an AP analysis of U.S. Department of Energy records shows.

The cross-country shipments are stoking concerns that waste from Connecticut, New Jersey and South Carolina is taking up needed space in Utah, unnecessarily creating potential shipping hazards and undermining congressional intent for states to dispose of their own waste on a regional basis.

"It's clear that the low-level waste system in this country is broken when there are states with their own dump sites sending tons of radioactive garbage across the country for disposal in Utah," said Vanessa Pierce, executive director of the nuclear waste watchdog group Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah. "The compact system, which was supposed to protect states from becoming the country's dumping ground, has been totally derailed."

The 3.6 million cubic feet of Class A waste disposed of at EnergySolutions Inc.'s Utah facility by Connecticut, New Jersey and South Carolina is more than 50 times greater than the amount of Class A waste they disposed of at their own site near Barnwell, S.C., since their compact was formed in 2000.

It also represents more than 13 percent of the Class A waste volume disposed of in Utah in the same period, according to Department of Energy records.

Low-level radioactive waste is created during the decommissioning of nuclear power plants and is also produced at hospitals and research labs.

Congress intended for states to band together to dispose of the waste they generated when it created what are known as regional compacts. The compact system was adopted in the 1980s after South Carolina, Washington state and Nevada complained they were becoming national dumping grounds for nuclear waste.

While waste is created around the country, only three states — South Carolina, Utah and Washington — currently have disposal sites because of the expensive nature of creating facilities and public opposition to hosting them.

But since then, no new compact facilities have opened, and the Nevada site has closed. The Hanford site near Richland, Wash., has been closed to all but 11 Western states, and South Carolina hasn't accepted waste from outside its three-state Atlantic compact of South Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut since July.

"South Carolina has yet to decommission its nuclear reactors. And that's some time off, but there is enough (capacity) for the member states' anticipated needs," said Atlantic Compact chairman Benjamin Johnson.