House panel takes up N-waste act

A congressional hearing has been scheduled for next week on legislation that seeks to ban the importation of foreign radioactive waste.

HR515, co-sponsored by Reps. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, will be heard Tuesday in the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.

Called the Radioactive Import Deterrence Act, it seeks the ban but does allow for narrow exceptions involving defense or national security needs.

"No other country on earth takes another country's nuclear waste," Matheson said. "My legislation draws a bright line as to what federal policy in this area should be. I expect that this hearing will help move the bill a step closer to a vote in the House."

The bill comes in the midst of EnergySolutions' efforts to dispose of 1,600 tons of radioactive waste from Italy at its Tooele County facility in Clive, Tooele County.

A legal battle over the disposal is pending before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

— Amy Joi O'Donoghue