Nuclear waste facility may 'raise bar'
Planned Tooele County plant hopes to import higher-level material
Company president Charles Judd acknowledges he must overcome high hurdles in the project, if Cedar Mountain does decide to seek B- and C-level waste. And Bill Sinclair, deputy director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, says that if attitudes against that type of material coming into the state don't change, "that makes it look very unlikely."
The controversy over B and C waste has a long history in the Beehive State. The material, mostly byproducts of decommissioned nuclear power plants, is more radioactive than the low-level Class A waste accepted by Envirocare of Utah at its disposal facility in the Tooele desert, about halfway between Salt Lake City and Wendover.
When Envirocare expressed interest in accepting B and C waste, the public uproar was so loud that the Legislature passed a law requiring its specific approval before the material could be imported.
The possibility that Cedar Mountain would seek a permit was raised in the Dec. 13 issue of "The International Radioactive Exchange," a journal that keeps tabs on the nuclear industry.
He plans to file an application with state officials in about six months, Judd said. The type of waste would be specified in the application.
The Cedar Mountain site is located directly north of Envirocare's facility, said Judd, who is a former president of Envirocare. Cedar Mountain has an option to buy the private land involved, which is three or four miles south of I-80 and can be served by the freeway and by the Union Pacific Railroad line that runs through the area, he said.
Cedar Mountain has completed siting criteria, receiving an approval from state regulators at that step after a year and a half of work, he said. This step involves checking whether a site is acceptable for waste disposal.
"We haven't gone out and begun constructing any facilities," Judd added. "We're hoping for 2006, to get licenced and begin construction."
Sources of the Class B and C wastes could be the U.S. Department of Energy, nuclear power plants and material used in research, he said.
Earlier, he said, he was opposed to Cedar Mountain accepting B and C waste. The reason is that Envirocare was pursuing a permit to import that kind of waste, and he did not want to compete with the earlier facility on that, according to Judd.
"Just recently, they (Envirocare) changed their philosophy and said they would no longer pursue B and C waste," he said. Also, Tooele County refused to approve his facility because of problems in showing a need for another project doing the same thing as Envirocare.
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