Tribune Editorial
Salt Lake Tribune

    And it didn't look good for the home team - the 2.5 million Utahns who stand to gain nothing except an unwanted distinction: home of the world's dumping ground. Because federal regulations require the NRC to rule solely on the safety of the proposal and without regard to the origin of the waste, the license likely would have been approved.
    Then, as time was about to expire, the NRC wisely called a time-out. The agency announced Monday that it will hold the license request "in abeyance" until a federal judge determines if the Northwest Interstate Compact has the authority to reject the proposal.
    The operating board of the federally sanctioned compact, which is charged with controlling the flow of radioactive waste into the eight-state region, slammed the door shut to Italian waste this spring. But EnergySolutions filed a lawsuit claiming the compact lacks jurisdiction over privately owned disposal facilities.
    With the trial scheduled for next September, the NRC's decision buys Congress time to ban imported waste, and settle the issue once and for all. To rightly reserve our nation's dwindling disposal space for domestic waste, and preserve Utah's reputation as a tourist destination.
    But the delay also gives EnergySolutions, which has approached Great Britain about importing waste and makes no secret of its international aspirations, time to buy some more members of Congress. Company officials have pumped thousands of dollars into campaign coffers in recent years, and money talks in Congress. Fortunately, voters talk even louder.
    Thousands of Utahns have already joined Gov. Jon Huntsman, the Utah Radiation Control Board and state tourism officials in opposing the proposal and supporting a ban on radioactive imports. But, among Utah's congressional delegation, only Rep. Jim Matheson has co-sponsored the import ban bill.
    So call your federal legislators. Tell them that Utah shouldn't be the world's nuclear dumping ground. Tell them it's time to get off the fence and push this bill through Congress.

By Judy Fahys and Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune

Nuclear waste from Italy won't be rolling into Utah anytime soon.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday it is postponing a decision on whether low-level radioactive waste from Italy can be buried in Tooele County. In order to grant a license, federal regulators must be sure that the waste has somewhere suitable to go, and they won't have that assurance unless a federal court ruling clears the way, the NRC said.
A court decision is not expected for more than a year.
Bill Sinclair, deputy director of environmental quality for Utah, said the NRC's delay has the effect of upholding the power of the eight-state "Northwest Compact" to block Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions from disposing of foreign waste at its mile-square disposal site in western Utah.
"That's important," said Sinclair, deputy director of environmental quality for the state and Utah's representative on the Northwest Compact governing committee.
The Italian waste question has transformed over the past year into a larger debate over who oversees low-level nuclear waste in the United States, where EnergySolutions has taken all but a small percentage of the nation's low-level waste for years.
EnergySolutions requested a federal judge's ruling last spring. The company says the Northwest Compact's authority does not extend to the Utah disposal site, because it is privately owned and operated, free to do international business.
But the state and the compact say Congress set up the regional waste program to control the flow of all low-level radioactive material in and out of the eight-state region. Under a contract that has been in effect since 1991, the compact has permitted EnergySolutions to operate a low-level waste site within compact boundaries, but foreign waste is not specifically allowed.
Jill Sigal, EnergySolutions' senior vice president for government relations, called the postponement "very reasonable."
"You can't read into it one way or the other quite frankly," she said.
"We maintain our view that our license application meets the requirements for the NRC to grant the license."
More than a year ago, EnergySolutions asked NRC for a license to import 20,000 tons of low-level waste from Italy, process most of it in Tennessee and then haul 1,600 tons of waste to Utah for disposal. Italy, which began dismantling its nuclear reactors two decades ago, has no low-level waste disposal of its own.
Congress also has stepped into the fray. Democratic Reps. Jim Matheson of Utah and Bart Gordon of Tennessee have introduced legislation to ban most foreign waste.
"What we have is a company asking to dump foreign waste in this country, even though there's no state willing to take it, " said Matheson, "and it's created a policy vacuum that leaves us vulnerable to becoming the world's nuclear garbage dump."
Matheson said the delay will give the bill's supporters time to get the import ban signed into law.
The NRC said in its order Monday that it would await the court ruling unless the company finds some other way to dispose of the foreign waste.
The delay means NRC will not decide whether the state of Utah and anti-nuclear groups can have a formal hearing on the matter.
The NRC fielded more than 2,900 mostly negative comments on the license request.

NRC says federal court case must finish first

By Brice Wallace
Deseret News

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday that it will hold off on deciding about EnergySolutions Inc.'s application to import low-level radioactive waste from Italy for disposal in Utah, saying a federal court case in Utah must finish first.

In its order, the commission said it would defer action — including hearings — on the pending application until a federal lawsuit brought by the company is resolved or EnergySolutions "outlines an alternative plan for disposal" of the imported waste.

EnergySolutions has applied for an NRC license to import 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste from closed nuclear plants in Italy for processing at an EnergySolutions facility in Tennessee. The company would dispose of part of the waste — about 1,600 tons of Class A radioactive waste — in Utah at a state-licensed facility in Clive, Tooele County. Any materials unable to be disposed of there would be exported back to Italy, although EnergySolutions has indicated it doesn't expect that would be necessary.

The eight-state Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management, of which Utah is a member, has ruled that EnergySolutions can accept domestic low-level waste from outside the compact area, but no foreign low-level waste, at the Clive facility.

In May, EnergySolutions filed a federal lawsuit against the compact, seeking a ruling that the compact has no regulatory authority over the Clive facility because it is not a regional disposal facility created by the compact.

"While both EnergySolutions and the state of Utah briefed this issue, the commission will not wade into the legal dispute between EnergySolutions and the Northwest Compact now before the federal district court in Utah," the commission said in its order Monday. "A commission decision on the extent of the Northwest Compact's exclusionary jurisdiction would not be binding on the courts."

"Basically, if the court were to issue a decision or the two sides were to reach a settlement, the next step for the NRC would then be to pick up the request for a hearing and decide, based on the situation at that time, whether they would grant a hearing, and after that, they could direct the staff to do one thing or another regarding the license application," NRC spokesman David McIntyre said Monday.

Jill Sigal, senior vice president of government relations for EnergySolutions, said the NRC's action is "another step in the process" and "a very prudent course of action."

"We are not surprised by the commission action today," Sigal said. "We respect the commission's decision. We think it is a reasonable action to take in light of pending actions for a declaratory judgment...We do not view this as a setback. It makes sense for the NRC to take this action until the action for declaratory judgment is decided by the judge."

Sigal said EnergySolutions maintains its stance that its application meets the requirements for an NRC license.

"The material poses no health or safety risks, and we have both permanent facilities in Tennessee to process the material and a permanent licensed facility in the state of Utah to dispose of the residual small amount of Class A waste," she said.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said the NRC's delay shows it is unclear who is in charge of regulating the import of foreign radioactive waste, and underscores the need for a bill he is pushing with Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., to ban such imports.

"What we have is a company asking to dump foreign waste in this country, even though there's no state willing to take it, and it's created a policy vacuum that leaves us vulnerable to becoming the world's nuclear garbage dump," Matheson said.

Gordon said the delay may give him and Matheson time to enact their bill. "By postponing their decision until this lawsuit is decided, my colleagues and I will have time to get the ban on importing foreign nuclear waste signed into law," he said.

The NRC received more than 2,500 responses — mostly negative — to EnergySolutions' application before the public comment period ended in June.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has delayed a decision on whether to allow EnergySolutions Inc. to import the largest-ever amount of nuclear waste into the U.S.

The NRC ruled Monday that it will wait until a federal court decides whether an interstate compact can block disposal of the waste in Utah.

The Salt Lake City-based company wants to bring the 20,000 tons of low-level waste from Italy through the ports of Charleston, S.C., or New Orleans for processing in Tennessee. After processing, about 1,600 tons would be disposed at the Salt Lake City-based company's dump in the western Utah desert.

The proposal has drawn a record number of public comments — most in opposition to the plan.

Utah joined the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-level Radioactive Waste in 1982 under a plan by Congress to promote regional solutions for low-level waste. When EnergySolutions, then called Envirocare of Utah, sought to accept low-level waste in 1991, the state backed the company.

But at Utah's urging, the eight-state compact ruled earlier this year that EnergySolutions can only use its dump for domestic waste, not foreign waste.

However, EnergySolutions contended the compact has no authority over operations at its landfill in Tooele County about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City and has filed a federal lawsuit asking for a judge's ruling on the issue. Utah has agreed to become a defendant in that lawsuit. It was unclear Monday when a court would make a ruling on that case.

A spokesman for EnergySolutions could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said the NRC's delay shows it is unclear who is in charge of regulating the import of foreign radioactive waste, and the need for a bill he is pushing with Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., to ban such imports.

"What we have is a company asking to dump foreign waste in this country, even though there's no state willing to take it, and it's created a policy vacuum that leaves us vulnerable to becoming the world's nuclear garbage dump," Matheson said.

Gordon said the delay may give him and Matheson time to enact their bill. "By postponing their decision until this lawsuit is decided, my colleagues and I will have time to get the ban on importing foreign nuclear waste signed into law," he said.

Tribune Editorial
Salt Lake Tribune

A nuclear power plant? In the desert? Where, in the event of a drought, there's no guarantee that water resources will be sufficient to cool the nuclear reactors and operate the plant? In a nation with no place to store the spent fuel? On land granted to the state for the benefit of school children? Made possible by an agency that's required to manage those assets for the financial benefit of those same kids, who may one day be saddled with debt, high utility bills and tons of radioactive waste if the project proceeds?
    That's absurd. And that's SITLA for you.
    SITLA, the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, is poised to lease about 2,500 acres three miles west of Green River to Emery County for an industrial park. The SITLA board, well aware that a nuke plant was in the offing, signed off on the proposal in May and authorized administrators to draw up the agreement. The paperwork, a SITLA attorney said, should be completed and signed within a week.
    The county, in turn, has approved a purchase option for about 1,620 acres with EnergyPath Corporation, a North Carolina company with ties to Utah state Rep. Aaron Tilton. EnergyPath hopes to acquire a federal permit to build a nuclear power plant in the park. SITLA administrators have also been authorized to sign off on the option if the documents are in order.
    The nuclear power plant would be a first for Utah, and for good reason. It's stupid to even contemplate building a water-intensive power plant in the desert and particularly in the upper Colorado River Basin, where allocated water rights already exceed the river's flow during dry years. We understand the county's desire to create high-paying jobs and produce carbon-free energy, but there are better, safer alternatives than nuclear power plants.
    One would think that the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission would put a stop to this foolish proposal if and when a formal application is filed. But why take a chance? The SITLA board should rescind its offer, or limit development in the park to traditional industries.
    SITLA uses the meter-maid argument to justify paving the way for a nuclear power plant. "Just doing my job, mam."
    And it's true that their mandate from the state is to act like a financial trust, and put profits for beneficiaries first and foremost. That, too, has to change.
    The state Legislature needs to refine SITLA's marching orders to prevent the sale or lease of land for projects that do more harm than good.

EnergySolutions: Day of reckoning for Italian waste draws near

October. Halloween. Ghosts and goblins. Just for the fun of it, we give ourselves a scare.
    But this October has the potential for something truly frightening. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission may decide this month if Utah will be the final resting place for Italy's low-level radioactive waste.
    That would be a bad thing for the nation, and for Utah in particular. Our No. 1 industry, tourism, would suffer. So would economic development. "World's Nuclear Waste Dumping Ground." It's not the kind of thing you put on a sign at the state border, or on chamber of commerce brochures. It's not the kind of reputation you want to have.
    And there's something perverse about the idea that we would accept dangerous materials that another country doesn't want, or that a company would seek contracts that burden us with nuclear waste simply to make a profit.
    EnergySolutions' dump in Tooele County, the nation's only privately owned nuclear waste disposal facility, has proven to be an attractive nuisance. The company hopes to dump 1,600 tons of waste from Italy's nuclear power industry in the Beehive State.
    If the NRC approves the licensing request, it will be against the wishes of Gov. Jon Huntsman, an eight-state nuclear waste compact, the Utah Radiation Control Board, a host of environmental advocacy organizations and hundreds of average Utahns who have stated their objections in correspondence with the federal agency. And it will defy the canons of common sense.
    Our nation has limited disposal space for low-level nuclear waste, which is primarily generated by our nuclear power industry, which could be on the verge of an unprecedented expansion in response to global warming concerns. The EnergySolutions facility is currently the only disposal option available for 36 states. It is essential that every inch of the dump be reserved for domestic waste.
    And with a bill pending in Congress to ban the importation of foreign radioactive waste, and a U.S. District court battle looming to determine if the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-level Radioactive Waste Management can halt the shipments, an NRC decision seems premature.
    Federal regulations currently forbid importing waste unless there is an approved facility in which to dispose of it. And until the federal court rules on the Compact case, the door at the dump is closed. For that reason alone, the NRC should deny the request.

He and a Tennessee representative say there is no place to store the radioactive waste

By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON - Two congressmen argue in a letter sent Wednesday that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission lacks power to grant a license for Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions to import 20,000 tons of Italian low-level radioactive waste into the United States.
Saying they understand a decision may be granted soon on EnergySolutions' request, Reps. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., ask the NRC to reject the application to bring the waste to American shores because there is no site to store it.
"The NRC has no authority to import waste when there is not a facility to ultimately dispose of it," Matheson and Gordon wrote.
EnergySolutions is seeking to bring the waste from Italy to Tennessee to process and then bury about 1,600 leftover tons of waste in the company's disposal site in Utah's west desert. But Utah officials have balked at the plan, and the Northwest Interstate Compact, a congressionally sanctioned entity that controls the flow of radioactive waste in its region, opposes the move as well.
EnergySolutions has asked a federal judge if the compact has the power to block the importation.
Matheson and Gordon maintain in their letter that NRC regulations require a company seeking a license to have an "appropriate facility [that] has agreed to accept the waste," and EnergySolutions doesn't have one.
The two Democrats also say that of the 4,000 comments received about EnergySolutions license request, only a handful supported it - and those came "mostly from persons connected with the nuclear waste industry."
Jill Sigal, a senior vice president for government relations at EnergySolutions, says Matheson and Gordon have written the NRC letters before and the company "respectfully" has a different opinion.
"Our import application meets the criteria for the NRC to grant EnergySolutions the import license," Sigal said, noting that the NRC approved a similar request for Canadian low-level radioactive waste in 2006.
NRC spokeswoman Beth Hayden declined comment on the letter and said the commission still is considering the submitted comments. "The earliest that the commission would likely make a decision would be sometime in October."

Provo Daily Herald

Joe Thomas

As Spanish Fork City geared up to celebrate a new 18.9 megawatt (MW) wind power plant with a community kite festival on Sept 5 and 6, I was disappointed to read such a misleading and negative editorial on wind power from the Daily Herald ("Herald Poll: Should wind power get priority?" August 22).

The editorial claims that T. Boone Pickens' goal to see 20 percent of America's energy generated from wind power "is virtually impossible ... at least in the foreseeable future." Last year, U.S. cumulative wind energy capacity reached 16,818 MW, and wind contributed to more than 30 percent of the new U.S. generation capacity in 2007.

While the 20-percent goal will not happen overnight, achieving the 20-percent wind energy scenario is feasible, achievable, responsible and smart.

According to the Department of Energy study, "20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy's Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply," the nation possesses affordable wind energy resources far in excess of those needed to enable a 20 percent scenario.

The report also finds that the 20-percent wind scenario could:

• provide $205 billion in net economic benefits to the U.S. economy;

• reduce water consumption by 17 percent;

• support roughly 500,000 jobs in the U.S;

• support more than 200,000 jobs through increased local spending;

• increase annual property tax revenues to more than $1.5 billion by 2030;

• provide a new cash crop to farmers and ranchers in the form of annual lease payments of more than $600 million in 2030 ($2,500 - $4,000 per installed MW per year);

• and provide reliable energy for less than 0.5 cents per kWh.

Utah has the technical potential to contribute nearly 2,500 megawatts of wind towards the national 20-percent goal -- this excludes sensitive lands, national parks and areas unsuited for wind development (i.e. the top of Mt. Timpanogos). This amount of wind would provide enough energy for over 660,000 average Utah homes and yield a net economic benefit of approximately $2.7 billion and over 1,110 long-term jobs.

Wind power provides benefits and new revenue streams to citizens, businesses, schools, governments and communities. The Spanish Fork wind project is already providing benefits to the both Nebo School District and Utah County. During the first 20 years of operation of the wind project, the total revenue to the Nebo School District is estimated to be $1.267 million and $3.682 million during every 20-year project phase thereafter (assumes 2-percent inflation).

Utah County and the city will reap millions in direct, indirect and induced economic impacts over the life of the project.

Wind is already being integrated in utility grids across the nation without issue and is cost-competitive with traditional energy resources. One square mile of land can accommodate approximately 10 MW of wind, while leaving most of the land still available for traditional uses, such as farming, ranching, or gravel pit operations -- wind is ideal for rural communities and landowners looking for additional income. And bird lovers should worry more about house cats, cars and glass windows (the top culprits for bird mortalities). The National Audubon Society strongly supports wind power as a clean alternative energy source.

Achieving the 20-percent goal won't happen on its own; it will take a collective effort to make it a reality. Spanish Fork is doing its part. Wind energy may not be perfect, but what energy resource is perfect and without impacts? In my opinion, wind energy offers an improvement over how things have been done in the past, and Utah stands only to benefit from more wind development.

• Joe Thomas is mayor of Spanish Fork.

Industry wants to garner more trust among citizens over power source

By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune

LAS VEGAS - The nuclear waste industry wants you.
    Well, at least your input.
    Without it, the nation's nuclear waste logjam could get worse, said cleanup industry representatives and regulators last week.
    "It's a very complicated problem and one that will take a lot of communication to solve," said Gregory B. Jaczko, of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
    The message comes at an important time for the industry. On one hand, many hope to see the public embrace nuclear power as a solution to growing energy demands and cutting the pollution blamed for climate change. At the same time, there are too few options for radiation-contaminated waste.
    And, although it believes it has the technology to do its work safely, the nuclear waste industry doesn't have sufficient public trust. Public opposition has derailed at least five nuclear waste facilities in two decades.
    That means just 14 states have somewhere to send all their low-level waste. A national repository for high-level waste is already a decade late.
    It's as if we had built houses without toilets. And the hazardous excrement is piling up.
    Meanwhile, the nuclear-waste industry needs public support for a few important low-level waste projects:
    * New disposal is needed for some of the more radioactive material that used to go to a Barnwell, S.C., disposal site. Until it shut its doors to waste from all but three states this summer, it accepted these hotter forms of waste from hospitals, universities and, primarily, from nuclear power plants.
    * Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions wants to bury waste from Italy at its Tooele County landfill. Garnering more than 2,900, mostly critical comments to the NRC last spring, the proposal has raised policy questions that are now before a federal court and Congress.
    * Blending more-radioactive low-level waste with less-radioactive low-level waste so that that reactor rubbish and other too-hot waste can be buried in Utah, which limits the hazard level of waste coming into the state.
    * A new disposal site in Texas is headed into the public-review phase of licensing. Although company representatives say, "the community is solidly behind us," a Texas chapter of the Sierra Club filed suit to stop the site in June.
    Jaczko spoke to industry representatives and regulators attending the Annual RadWaste Summit last week.
    "The challenges aren't necessarily technical," he said later in an interview with The Tribune.
    "We don't fully understand what the public's concerns are."
    And it's not clear that industry is persuaded that more public involvement is an antidote to public fear and mistrust.
    Bret Rogers, senior vice president for EnergySolutions, highlighted during the summit a Tribune editorial against the waste-blending proposal under consideration and noted stories about the gathering were being posted on the Internet.
    "So, be careful about what you say throughout this conference," he warned.
    But Oregon resident Shelley Cimon applauded the idea of more public involvement in nuclear waste programs. She has bird-dogged the $25 billion cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state for two decades and currently serves on the multifaceted citizen advisory board for the cleanup.
    The group reviews everything from budgets to contracts to policy to scientific tools involved in the $2 billion-a-year cleanup, she said.
    The panel's voice is helpful and respected by the government agencies overseeing the work.
    "There has to be a public voice," Cimon said in an interview.
    The pledges of openness she heard at the RadWaste summit were "terrific," she said. "It's important that's being said, but the implementation is also important."
    fahys@sltrib.com
    Low-level radioactive waste is generally material from government cleanups, nuclear plant cleanups, reactor rubbish and similar waste from hospitals and universities.
    Class A low-level waste Ð the kind accepted by EnergySolutions Inc. in Utah - is the least contaminated. It's considered to lose its hazardous quality in about 100 years.
    State lawmakers outlawed Class B and C waste in Utah three years ago. It's hazard lasts about 300 and 500 years, respectively.
    High-level waste is dangerously radioactive. It includes used fuel rods from commercial reactors and highly contaminated material from atomic weapons plants. The Skull Valley Goshutes and their business partners have filed suit to protect a license they obtained from federal regulators to store high-level waste on the tiny tribe's Tooele County reservation.