State Officials Are Offering Up Utah to Host Other States’ Nuclear Waste – Without Public Input
August 3, 2026
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State Officials Are Offering Up Utah to Host Other States' Nuclear Waste – Without Public Input
Advocates are standing together for environmental justice and true regional leadership
Contact:
Carmen Valdez
Senior Policy Associate, HEAL Utah
carmen@healutah.org
Lexi Tuddenham
Executive Director, HEAL Utah
lexi@healultah.org
Haakon Williams
Executive Director
Committee to Bridge the Gap
h.williams@committeetobridgethegap.org
Esteban Ortiz
Founder, Gorge Association of Aspirations
esteban@gorgeaspirations.org
For Immediate Release
August 3, 2026
Salt Lake City, Utah – Partners in Utah, California, and Washington are sounding the alarm after learning that Utah has been put forward as a potential destination for the nation’s high-level radioactive waste, despite decades of public opposition to turning Utah into the country’s dumping ground. HEAL has been monitoring the importation of radioactive waste for decades and stands alongside communities as they say “No” to high-level radioactive waste being transported through their communities to be dumped in the west desert just past Great Salt Lake.
Following the state’s response to the Department of Energy’s request for proposals to host a “nuclear lifecycle innovation campus,” HEAL Utah began reviewing the submission and raised concerns that Utah is being positioned to become a destination for not only testing of new nuclear reactors, but also to become the nation’s high-level radioactive waste dumping ground. State decision-makers are soliciting the development of a full nuclear lifecycle hub within the watershed of the Great Salt Lake, an effort that could include fuel fabrication and enrichment, as well as the transportation, storage, processing, reprocessing, and management of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel, and other radioactive materials from across the United States. HEAL Utah warns this could further endanger the Great Salt Lake’s watershed and negatively impact the communities living within it.
From partners in California and Washington, HEAL learned this could include waste currently stored at California’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, as well as radioactive waste from the clean up of the Manhattan Project’s Hanford Site in Washington, the most contaminated nuclear site in the Western Hemisphere.
During a June meeting of key stakeholders seeking a disposal site for the high-level radioactive waste from California’s former San Onofre nuclear power plant, a representative of the State of Utah’s Office of Energy Development made remarks that led a Southern California newspaper columnist to excitedly conclude that Utah “is willing and eager to host America’s nuclear waste.” Jeremy Pearson, who directs the Utah Advanced Nuclear and Energy Institute, told the meeting that “we are very much interested as a state in working with other states in finding a solution to this problem.”
“One of the main challenges in our work for responsible stewardship of the San Onofre nuclear waste is an attitude of ‘just get the waste out of here, it doesn’t matter where it goes.’ But it does matter, and we should be prepared to hold the waste here until we’re sure it won’t be a curse to the community we send it to” said Haakon Williams, executive director of Committee to Bridge the Gap, a California-based nuclear policy nonprofit. “The projects being developed in states like Utah are structured around a temporary storage and reprocessing paradigm that is dirty, dangerous, and desperate. We can and will forge a path for wise nuclear waste stewardship that Americans can be proud of, but this isn’t it.”
On July 28, 2026 it was announced that Utah was one of five states selected for a “Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus through the Department of Energy. In a press statement the following day, HEAL and advocates warned that each state, including Utah, will be on the line for taking the nation’s high-level radioactive waste.
For generations, Utah communities have fought proposals to bring high-level radioactive waste into the state. From the defeat of the Skull Valley spent fuel storage proposal to repeated efforts by residents, Tribal Nations, local governments, and environmental organizations to stop Utah from becoming a national repository, the public has consistently rejected importing the country’s most hazardous radioactive waste.
EnergySolutions, a company that has given money to state legislators, run legislation to benefit its own business in hazardous waste disposal, is set to be the company that profits the most off this deal, which was rolled out without public input or informed community consent. During an initial hearing for a 2025 bill that ultimately set up Energysolutions to import low level radioactive waste across international borders into Utah for the first time in history, the bill sponsor, sitting next to EnergySolutions’ lobbyist, claimed that opposition to nuclear waste in Utah was a thing of the past. HEAL Utah, our 20,000 supporters, and the many community members we have heard from across the state, are a vigorous reminder that that is simply not true. “This appears to be another attempt to offer Utah as a sacrifice zone,” said Carmen Valdez from HEAL Utah. “Utahns have repeatedly made it clear that they do not want our communities to become the nation’s dumping ground for radioactive waste that will remain hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years.”
The renewed push is being promoted under the banner of recovering valuable materials from spent nuclear fuel through reprocessing. However, decades of experience and research and research have shown that commercial reprocessing is extraordinarily expensive, creates additional radioactive waste streams, presents significant proliferation and security concerns, and does not eliminate the need for permanent disposal. Even after usable materials are separated, highly radioactive waste remains and still requires secure, long-term isolation.
HEAL Utah warns “Reprocessing should not be portrayed as a solution to the nation’s nuclear waste problem. Spent nuclear fuel can only be reprocessed to recover certain materials, and the remaining highly radioactive waste still requires permanent disposal. Rather than eliminating the problem, reprocessing changes its form while creating additional contaminated materials that must also be managed.”
Equally concerning is that Utah currently lacks the specialized infrastructure necessary to safely manage commercial high-level radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel. Existing facilities in Utah are licensed primarily for low-level radioactive waste, not the intensely radioactive spent nuclear fuel produced by commercial nuclear reactors. Accepting the nation’s highest-level radioactive waste would require an entirely different level of transportation planning, emergency preparedness, long-term storage, security, regulatory oversight, and public health protection.
Bringing this material to Utah would also lead to the transportation of highly radioactive waste through communities across the Westt. Every shipment carries the risk of spills and contamination due to accidents, natural disasters, infrastructure failures, or intentional acts of sabotage. No transportation system is risk-free, and any significant incident could have lasting environmental, economic, and public health consequences.
Additionally, HEAL Utah is particularly troubled that the potential financial benefits would largely accrue to private companies seeking to profit from storing or processing the nation’s nuclear waste, while Utah communities would bear the long-term risks. Radioactive contamination, transportation hazards, emergency response costs, and the burden of managing waste that remains dangerous for millennia would become public responsibilities long after private profits have been realized.
“This is not simply about one facility,” Lexi Tuddenham of HEAL Utah said. “It is about fundamentally changing Utah’s role in the nation’s nuclear waste system. Once the infrastructure is built and the waste begins arriving, Utah could become the destination for high-level radioactive waste from reactors across the country.”
HEAL Utah is calling on Governor Spencer Cox and the Utah Office of Energy Development to publicly disclose all communications, proposals, and commitments related to offering Utah as a host for high-level radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel. The organization is also urging state leaders to respect Utah’s long history of opposing high-level nuclear waste disposal and to ensure any future decisions include meaningful public participation before commitments are made on behalf of Utah residents.
Carmen Valdez, Senior Policy Associate for HEAL Utah states “The transportation of high-level radioactive waste is not just a Utah issue, it is a regional and national concern. Moving spent nuclear fuel across highways and railways would put communities along those routes at risk and require unprecedented levels of emergency preparedness, infrastructure planning, and public oversight. Before any state or private company commits to accepting this waste, the public deserves a transparent conversation about who bears the risks, who benefits financially, and who will be responsible for the waste as itremains hazardous to humans for thousands of years.”
In solidarity with HEAL Utah, the Gorge Association of Aspirations states “At the Gorge Association of Aspirations, we believe that true empowerment begins when communities refuse to let toxic burdens be shifted onto those with the least power to fight back. That is why we stand in full, unwavering support of HEAL Utah and their vital, courageous work to protect people and ecosystems from radioactive hazards.
The plan to ship high-risk radioactive waste from the Hanford site across state lines into Utah is not a cleanup solution, it is an evasion of responsibility. Transporting legacy nuclear waste through our regions and dumping it in Utah’s backyard directly threatens frontline communities, Indigenous nations, and vulnerable populations who have already borne far too much environmental trauma.
True leadership does not export its hazards. We call directly on the State of Oregon, the Oregon Hanford Cleanup Board, the State of Washington, and the Hanford Advisory Board to step up and lead.
Clean up at the source: Contain, treat, and secure Hanford’s waste where it sits rather than turning interstate highways and neighboring states into toxic disposal routes.
Protect frontline communities: Stop treating frontline, rural, and downwind communities as sacrifice zones.
Demand systemic accountability: Work collaboratively with regional watchdogs like HEAL Utah to build long-term, ethical cleanup solutions grounded in public health and environmental justice.
We have the collective power to demand better. Together with HEAL Utah, we stand firm: No offshore burden-shifting, no radioactive sacrifice zones, and real leadership for Hanford’s cleanup now.”
“Our state has already sacrificed enormously during the nuclear age,” Carmen Valdez of HEAL Utah said. “From uranium mining and milling to nuclear weapons testing and waste disposal, Utah families continue to live with the health and environmental consequences of radioactive exposure. We should not be asked to shoulder yet another generation of radioactive risk simply because private companies see an economic opportunity.”
Lexi Tuddenham, Executive Director of HEAL Utah states “Enough is enough. Instead of learning from ourhistory, state leaders appear willing to repeat it by positioning Utah to receive the nation’s most dangerous radioactive waste. HEAL Utah believes our state should not be treated as a sacrifice zone for the enrichment of private companies and the nuclear industry. Let us not create another generation of Downwinders.”
Resources:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/
https://www.ocregister.com/
https://news.bgov.com/social-
https://www.energy.gov/
https://www.radiationproject.
https://le.utah.gov/av/