Tell Utah leaders: No high-level radioactive waste in our state!
Utah has been selected as one of five states to potentially host a federal Department of Energy “Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus” in the Great Salt Lake watershed. While the initiative is being advertised as an opportunity for nuclear energy development, Utah’s proposal could involve much more than new reactor technologies.
The proposed nuclear campus could host activities including, but not limited to, uranium processing, fuel fabrication and enrichment, data center construction and operations, testing new nuclear reactor designs, reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, and the transportation as well as temporary and permanent storage of radioactive materials. All parts of this fuel chain produce radioactive waste and contamination that Utah will have to deal with for generations to come.
This raises a critical question: Is Utah being positioned by our elected officials and private industry to receive high-level radioactive waste from other states and countries?
Background
HEAL Utah has learned that Utah officials have expressed interest in taking other states’ high-level radioactive nuclear waste. Potential sources could include spent nuclear fuel from California’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and radioactive waste associated with the Hanford cleanup in Washington.
Utah has a long history of being asked to accept radioactive materials generated elsewhere. From uranium mining and milling to nuclear weapons testing and radioactive waste disposal, Utah communities have already borne significant environmental and public health burdens from the nuclear industry.
Utahns deserve to know what commitments state officials have made, and to have a meaningful say before any decisions are made, including saying NO, again!
Utahns have repeatedly rejected proposals to make the state a destination for high-level radioactive waste in the past, including the proposed Skull Valley spent fuel storage facility. We are tired of our desert being thought of as the nation’s dumping ground, and we have the right to deny these proposals.
What is high level radioactive waste?
High-level radioactive waste, including spent nuclear fuel from commercial reactors, contains extremely radioactive materials that can remain hazardous to human health for thousands of years.
Managing this material requires specialized infrastructure, security, emergency planning, transportation systems, regulatory oversight, and long-term isolation. Utah’s existing radioactive waste facilities are primarily licensed to handle low-level radioactive waste, not commercial spent nuclear fuel.
Utah does not have a reprocessing plant and that would take years at enormous cost to develop, permit, and build. Most importantly, reprocessing does not eliminate the waste problem. It separates certain usable materials from spent fuel but creates additional radioactive waste streams, while highly radioactive material still requires long-term management and disposal. Which means that waste would sit on the Great Salt Lake watershed for hundreds of thousands of years.
How is it transported?
If Utah becomes a destination for high-level radioactive waste, radioactive materials could travel through communities across the West by highway or rail.
No transportation system is completely risk-free. Accidents, natural disasters, infrastructure failures, or intentional acts could create serious challenges for communities along transportation routes and for emergency responders.
Threats to Environment and Public Health
Radioactive materials can expose people through external radiation and, if radioactive contamination is released, through inhalation, ingestion, or contamination of land and water.
The potential consequences are particularly important for communities located near proposed facilities and along transportation routes. Long-lived radioactive materials require protections that extend far beyond the lifespan of any individual company or project.
Utah should not become a sacrifice zone for the nation's nuclear waste.
HEAL Utah is particularly concerned that private companies could benefit financially from storing or processing radioactive waste while Utah communities are left with the long-term risks, transportation impacts, emergency response costs, and responsibility for material that remains hazardous for generations. Transportation and storage of high-level radioactive waste in Utah will not take place in a void–nowhere, it will take place through our communities and places we love, including around the Great Salt Lake.
Most importantly, Utahns should not learn about major commitments that have been decided behind closed doors and involve support through taxpayer dollars after they have already been made.
This is about more than nuclear energy.
It is about who makes decisions, who profits, who bears the risks, and who is responsible for radioactive waste long after today’s decision-makers and companies are gone.
If Utah becomes part of a national system for receiving and processing high-level radioactive waste, the impacts could extend across the state and throughout the West.
Utah communities deserve:
- The right to refuse to allow transportation, temporary, and permanent storage in and near their communities.
- Transparency about what state officials are proposing.
- Meaningful public participation before commitments are made.
- Protection of public health and the environment.
- Accountability for companies that profit from radioactive waste.
- A clear plan for transportation, emergency response, security, and long-term waste management.
Call To Action
Tell Governor Spencer Cox and your decision makers: Utahns deserve a say before Utah accepts high-level radioactive waste.
Ask state leaders to:
- Publicly disclose all proposals, communications, and commitments related to bringing high-level radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel into Utah.
- Reject any commitment to accept high-level radioactive waste without meaningful public participation and informed community consent with protections in place.
- Hold public meetings where Utahns can learn what is being proposed and ask questions directly of state decision-makers.
- Protect Utah communities from becoming the nation’s radioactive waste dumping ground.
- Hold higher standards when it comes to protecting public and environmental health from radioactive exposures, especially at a time when the federal government is weakening regulations that protect our workers and communities from exposure. .
How to Take Action
- Contact decision makers: Contact your decisionmakers using the form below – feel free to modify the language according to your own research and experiences!
- Spread the Word: Encourage readers to share the alert with their network.
Stay Informed: Follow HEAL Utah for updates and further actions you can take to protect our environment and community!
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