All-clear for waste imports
18 May 2009
A court ruling will allow Energy Solutions to carry out the processing, recycling and disposition of radioactive wastes from Italy.
The company said it was 'pleased' with the decision, which on 15 May clarified some aspects of the regulatory system for regional low-level radioactive waste (LLW) disposal in the USA. It will now proceed with its contract to import LLW from decommissioned nuclear facilities in Italy for processing and recycling into shielding blocks for use at other nuclear plants. A remainder of the material that cannot be recycled will be disposed of by Energy Solutions at its facility at Clive, Utah.
A heated dispute had emerged between Energy Solutions and the Northwest Interstate Compact, which regulates certain LLW disposal activities in the sates of Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
The Compact was set up in the 1980s to make it simpler for its member states to take their resposibility to dispose of their share of LLW and it holds regulatory control over operations of disposal facilities set up 'under it'. The Compact, along with the state of Utah, had objected to space at Clive being taken by wastes from abroad, saying such practices would reduce the availability of disposal space for the states. The Compact voted to block Energy Solutions and prohibit the import, but the company took the matter to the District Court of Utah, where a complex case began.
After consideration of three different waste acts of Congress that give the scope of the Compact's power, Judge Ted Stewart determined that the Clive facility, having been in operation before the advent of the Compact, was not subject to the full extent of the Compact's regulatory power as expressed in some of the legislation. Judge Stewart subsequently ruled that the Compact did not after all have the authority to restrict movements of out-of-region wastes to Energy Solutions' facility.
Energy Solutions said the wastes involved in the Italian project amount to 20,000 tonnes, about one third of which is metal which would be reformed into blocks to shield radiation. The remainder (materials such as lightly contaminated filters, gloves, plastic equipment etc), would be reduced in volume by a factor of 200 and stored at Clive.
In its project factsheet Energy Solutions asserts: "Clive has enough capacity to dispose of all of the low-level radioactive waste from the eventual decommissioning of the 104 US nuclear reactors and still have abundant capacity, over 50 million cubic feet (~1.4 million cubic meters)."