Governor Huntsman Moves to Block Italian Waste

Apr 23, 2008 by Lara Jones

Orders NWIC Rep to Vote Against Energy Solutions Proposal in May

(KCPW News) After a back and forth with the Nuclear Regulatory Committee in the press over whose call it was, Governor Jon Huntsman has moved to block the import of foreign nuclear waste to Utah:

Lisa Roskelley, Huntsman's director of communications, says the governor has "decided to ask the Utah representative on the NorthWest Interstate Compact to vote against any proposals for foreign nuclear waste as they come to Utah." 

According to its website, the NorthWest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management (NWIC) was created in 1981 to "share the responsibilities of low-level radioactive waste management." Member states include Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Utah-based Energy Solutions has been seeking the NRC's approval to import 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste from Italy for processing and disposal in Tennessee and Utah. If approved, 1,600 tons could end up stored at the company's dump 70 miles west of Salt Lake City.

Vanessa Pierce of Heal Utah, which opposes the proposal, says Huntsman put himself in a tough position two years ago by agreeing not to use the power of the NWIC against Energy Solutions as long as it didn't expand its capacity in Utah:

"And so I think he, with that agreement, inadvertently tied his hands and was reticent to break that agreement. But I think Huntsman had an even more sacred agreement, and that's to the people of Utah, the people who put him in office. And overwhelmingly, the Utah public does not want to see our state to be an international dumping ground - and he listened to those people." 

The Energy Solutions proposal will be on the agenda when the NWIC meets May 8. Huntsman has directed Utah's representative, Bill Sinclair, to vote against it, which should effectively kill the Italian deal.

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