Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- EnergySolutions Inc. filed a federal lawsuit just a few days before Utah plans to veto the disposal of radioactive waste in the state.
EnergySolutions claims an eight-state group that oversees waste disposal in the region has no authority over the project because the Clive, Utah, site is privately owned.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Salt Lake City, also says the U.S. Constitution does not allow the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste to choose between foreign and domestic waste.
EnergySolutions wants to import 20,000 tons of waste from dismantled nuclear reactors in Italy.
The company would import the waste through Charleston, S.C., or New Orleans and process it in Tennessee. After processing, about 1,600 tons of waste would be disposed at its facility in Tooele County, about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City.
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman has ordered the state's representative on the Northwest Compact to veto the storage. The group, which meets Thursday in Boise, Idaho, was created by Congress to manage nuclear waste in the region. The Italian waste hasn't hit U.S. shores.
An import license is pending at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where most of the more than 1,000 public comments oppose the company's plan.
"There has been a lot of misinformation quoted in association with this part of the project," said EnergySolutions spokesman John Ward. "A lot of people don't have a good understanding of what's involved here."
The company's lawsuit says the Northwest Compact doesn't have authority over the Utah site because it was not created by the group to handle regional waste.
But a resolution by the Northwest Compact that allows EnergySolutions to operate says: "Utah retains the right to specifically approve each disposal arrangement before the waste is allowed access to the licensed EnergySolutions facility."
Most years, the Utah site now takes up to 98 percent of low-level waste generated nationwide. Critics say the imported waste will take up space needed for U.S. waste.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
