Compact, Utah seek say with NRC on foreign waste
They want to review storage proposals on case-by-case basis
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission now knows what path Utah wants it to follow as the NRC considers present and future license applications to dispose of any foreign generated low-level radioactive waste at EnergySolutions’ Clive facility in Tooele County.
“They need to be attune to the fact that we need to be notified,” said Bill Sinclair, who represents Utah on the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management. The compact once again discussed foreign-waste imports at its meeting last week in Portland.
The need for that clarity arose after state and regional regulators learned this past year that the NRC had already allowed the Clive site to accept small amounts of radioactive waste that originated in Canada, France, Germany and Mexico. EnergySolutions officials said Tuesday the waste has been in the form of ash after an incineration process or slag from melted metal, and then only in “very” small amounts.
Now, however, the company wants to store up to 1,600 tons of low-level radioactive waste that would come from decommissioned nuclear power plants in Italy. That proposal prompted opposition last May from the Northwest Compact and an assertion to the NRC that the regional eight-member compact has authority over the Clive site
Sinclair said he wants the NRC to allow the Northwest Compact, and in effect Utah, to review each NRC application on a case-by-case basis when there’s a proposal to store foreign waste at the Clive site. Gov. Jon Hunstman Jr. has made it clear to Sinclair he opposes any proposals to import waste originating outside the U.S. for disposal in Utah.
In years past, Sinclair said Tuesday, the regulatory path hasn’t always been made clear, that is, until the Northwest Compact learned the NRC was overlooking the authority the compact believes it has over the Clive site.
EnergySolutions spokeswoman Jill Sigal said her company has not had any “secrets” about importing, processing or disposing of foreign radioactive waste.
“EnergySolutions is compliant with the law,” Sigal said. “We’re going to continue to be compliant with the law.”
Sigal said the Northwest Compact may have authority over another site within its eight member states, but not the Clive site, which she noted is not a regional facility. The Clive site, she added, is licensed to operate by the state and that the NRC, not the compact, handles applications for disposing of foreign radioactive waste.
Sinclair said he can’t be sure whether the compact, if it had been given the chance to review past NRC license applications, would have opposed previous shipments of small amounts of foreign radioactive waste to Utah. There are cases, he noted, where a foreign country is involved in a process that generates radioactive waste, which could end up being attributed to a U.S. source and thereby acceptable for disposal by EnergySolutions.
Utah, the compact, NRC and EnergySolutions are all waiting for a federal judge to decide whether the Northwest Compact can assert any authority over proposals to store foreign waste at the Clive facility.
Sinclair noted EnergySolutions has been following state and federal regulations as the company has understood them and that EnergySolutions has done nothing wrong. NRC officials said Tuesday EnergySolutions has been accessible and transparent as it submit applications to import foreign materials for processing and disposal in the U.S.
In the meantime, Utah regulators don’t have a statute to exclude foreign-generated low-level radioactive waste from being dumped in the state. And it appears that only last year did the NRC begin copying Utah Radiation Control Division director Dane Finerfrock on NRC license applications to store foreign-generated radioactive waste at the Clive site. Finerfrock was copied last December on an application the NRC received in 2006. Finerfrock said Tuesday he doesn’t know if there are other NRC applications regarding small amounts of foreign waste that he wasn’t copied on.
If the NRC knew of a “significant” amount of foreign radioactive waste being disposed of in Utah, the NRC would have done more than just copy the state on the license applications, according to Steve Demek, an NRC supervisor for export/import licensing.
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705258934,00.html?pg=1
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