Editorial: Nuclear solution: Congress should slam door on imported waste

07/05/2008
Tribune Editorial
Salt Lake Tribune
EnergySolutions wants to import 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste from Italy, process it in Tennessee and deposit the remaining 1,600 tons in its nuclear trash can in Tooele County. But you know that.
Gov. Jon Huntsman, the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management, the Utah Radiation Control Board, a bipartisan delegation of members of Congress, environmental watchdog groups and every sane citizen in the state of Utah oppose the plan. But you know that, too.
The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will rule on the request, and the logical arguments - dangerous waste should not be a commodity, disposal space should be reserved for domestic waste, Italy should foul its own backyard and not ours - won't hold water with the agency. NRC officials will base their decision on the technical data, and because there is no law banning imports and the waste is identical to that produced in the United States, the application will likely be approved. But again, you know that.
What you probably can't understand, knowing all that, is why Congress won't put a stop to this madness, and why the majority of our state's congressional delegation won't help make it happen. If we tried to foist our nuclear garbage on Italy, or the United Kingdom, or any other country that views EnergySolutions as the solution to its radioactive waste problem, their leaders would tell Uncle Sam to take a hike.
Congress already has the vehicle to block the plan, a House bill co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and 27 other clear-thinking congressmen. The proposed law would ban the importation of low-level radioactive waste. But, with just seven weeks remaining in the congressional session, it's bottled up in traffic in an Energy and Commerce subcommittee.
But a companion Senate bill is about to be introduced, providing another avenue to drive this much-needed legislation through Congress. Utah Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch, and Reps. Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop, need to put their shoulders against the bumpers and help push them through.
We need to ban the imports before EnergySolutions drums up more international business, and that tiny waste stream from Italy turns into a river that floods our dwindling disposal space.
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