Matheson bill would bar nuclear waste imports
He calls it a 'simple' measure, hopes for prompt approval
The bill's inspiration came from the pending EnergySolutions application to accept waste from decommissioned nuclear reactors in Italy.
U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, joined fellow House Energy and Commerce Committee members Reps. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., and Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., in sponsoring legislation that would ban import of nuclear waste unless it was originally produced in the U.S. An exception would be U.S. military waste generated abroad.
Matheson said on the phone that it would be too speculative to guess whether the bill, which still needs to be scheduled for a committee hearing, could be passed in time to impact the EnergySolutions proposal. He called it a "simple" bill that Congress may be able to act on quickly.
"I don't think Utah should be a dumping ground for the world's waste," Matheson said.
He said licenses have been granted to accept waste from other countries, but it was on a much smaller scale than the current EnergySolutions application.
When national policy was set on storing low-level radioactive waste from overseas, Matheson said no one considered that larger volumes and an increasing amount of requests would be coming from other countries. Mainly, the requests are coming from countries where nuclear reactors that will soon be decommissioned and in need of a place to store the resulting waste.
A press release from Gordon's office said President Bush could allow an exemption from the ban "if an application showed importation would serve a national or international policy goal, such as a research purpose." Any license to accept foreign-produced nuclear waste that was approved before passage of the bill would be grandfathered in and allowed.
EnergySolutions wants to import about 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste produced in Italy for processing in Tennessee. Less than 1,600 tons of waste left over after processing would be shipped for storage at the EnergySolutions site in Clive, Tooele County, about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City. The company already disposes of about 90 percent of the low-level radioactive waste produced in this country.
In a statement released Thursday, EnergySolutions noted its track record for safety and said the bill was dealing with an issue that should be left with the NRC.
"We believe that Congressman Gordon's legislation stripping the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its jurisdiction over an issue within its purview is unwise, unwarranted and unnecessary," the statement read. "The NRC has the scientific and technical expertise to make thoughtful decisions based on facts."
Recent comments
Go Jim! This state is definetely not a garbage dump!
Daniel | May 8, 2008 at 5:39 p.m.
I am running against Curt Bramble who has been supporting Energy…
Jackie | April 10, 2008 at 4:32 a.m.
This is a silly bill. When Libya confessed it had a nuclear weapons…
Raymond Takashi Swenson | March 17, 2008 at 8:50 a.m.
