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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A bill that would ban foreign nuclear waste from entering the U.S. is taking a small but significant step toward getting a U.S. House committee vote for the first time.
On Thursday, the Radioactive Import Deterrence Act will go through a process known as markup, where members of a House subcommittee will debate and recommend changes to the bill before it advances.
A hearing on the bill was held earlier this month.
The bill was drafted in response to a Utah company's plan to import up to 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste from Italy's shuttered nuclear power program. After processing in Tennessee, about 1,600 tons would be disposed of in Utah's west desert.
Bill supporters say U.S. disposal facilities should be preserved for domestic waste.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
