Uranium debate: Hearings this week to tackle EnergySolutions waste storage

In the next year, the amount of low-level radioactive waste stored in Utah could increase dramatically.

How that waste will be stored is open to debate. On one side are those who argue that storing it in any manner poses a danger both to the environment, and possibly to human health. Others argue that the storage of low-level waste, and depleted uranium in particular, poses no significant risk.

This week, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a series of meetings in Salt Lake City to discuss how much depleted uranium should come to Utah and how it should be stored. Specifically, the agency will look at how Salt Lake-based Energy?Solutions should dispose of and store tons of depleted uranium at its Clive management facility in Utah's west desert.

Currently, the company's license allows for the storage of unlimited quantities of depleted uranium, a Class A low-level waste product. Critics argue that storing such large amounts of radioactive waste could pose a serious environmental hazard for centuries into the future, but most people have little idea of what depleted uranium is and what the risks are of storing it in Utah.

The process to create depleted uranium begins in uranium mines, like the Pandora Mine in San Juan County. From there, it is transported to a mill where it's processed and sent to an enrichment facility in Ohio, Kentucky or New Mexico, the only three such facilities in the country. The depleted uranium is then transported to waste management facilities, like the EnergySolutions site in Clive.

When mixed with other base metals, depleted uranium, or DU, as it's often called, can be used to produce everything from atomic weapons to bullets and missiles. At high-speed impact, the density, hardness and flammability of DU projectiles enable destruction of heavily armored targets. DU's density and physical properties also make it ideal for use as armor shielding for vehicles like tanks and for containers used to store and transport radioactive materials. Other uses of DU include counterweights for aircraft control surfaces, as ballast for missile re-entry vehicles.

Utah doesn't process depleted uranium, and the EnergySolutions site in Clive is the only place in the state that stores the material. Federal regulations currently require storage of the waste three meters below ground in a facility that was assessed to contain the waste for 500 years.