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SALT LAKE CITY — The House voted without discussion 50-20 to approve changes made in a radioactive waste bill dealing with the potential storage of depleted uranium in Utah.
HB220 by Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, now goes to Gov. Gary Herbert for his signature, although critics are asking him to veto the measure. That appears unlikely, given a statement issued by his office.
“As with all legislation, we will scrutinize the bill before signing, but the governor believes that his major concerns have been addressed," said Paul Edwards, Herbert's deputy chief of staff.
The Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, or HEAL Utah, is planning a protest at the state Capitol Friday afternoon, asserting the bill paves the way for the state to accept "hotter" material beyond low-level radioactive waste, or waste in the class A category.
The Senate sponsor of the bill, Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, said that assertion is not true.
"It does not approve depleted uranium to be disposed of in Utah," Sandall told his colleagues this week. "… Finally, it does not open the doors to class B and C waste."
EnergySolutions is seeking to dispose of the nation's stockpile of depleted uranium, a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process, and a material so dense it is used by the military for coating tanks and as a shield in radiation therapy.
Depleted uranium, however, is a unique waste stream because as it decays it grows hotter over time — a characteristic critics say makes it unsuitable for disposal at EnergySolutions' Clive facility in Tooele County.
Sandall, however, urged his colleagues to base their vote on the "science" not emotion.
EnergySolutions has been going through an extensive review process with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality to determine site suitability for the material that includes modeling how the disposal site would perform in deep geologic time.
Sandall said the bill does not eliminate the requirement for review and it still requires the division director to approve the disposal.
Changes in the bill also require the U.S. Department of Energy to provide stewardship of the site in perpetuity.
