EnergySolutions cited for exceeding radiation limits

SALT LAKE CITY — EnergySolutions will be cited for accepting radioactive waste over the past 20 years that has exceeded levels of radioactivity permitted at its Clive facility.

Rusty Lundberg, executive secretary of the Utah Radiation Control Board, said he will issue the notice of violation to the company, as well as fines.

EnergySolutions notified state regulators in December when a more stringent analysis determined shipments contained waste above the Class A waste criteria, EnergySolutions' president and chief executive officer Val Christensen said. It was then confirmed that 15 shipments with 23 containers exceeded the the radioactivity permitted for disposal at Clive.

"The company did report the problem to us and has worked with (the division) to resolve these errors," Lundberg said.

The company regularly conducts analysis on all waste disposed at its Clive facility, including software monitoring. Lundberg said it was through routine analysis that the issue was discovered and then self-reported. Christensen says it represents less than 0.0003 percent of all containers received at the site.

State Department of Environmental Quality spokeswoman Donna Kemp Spangler said since the waste is so scattered, it is safer to leave it at the site then to try to dig it up and redispose of it.

Four waste generator companies, as well as as NASA, were cited in connection with the waste.

— Amy Joi O'Donoghue