By John Stang
A bill that would ease the acceptance and storage of depleted uranium in Utah now awaits signature from Gov. Gary Herbert (R).
But so far, Herbert has not indicated whether he will sign it or reject the legislation — or when that decision would be made. The governor has until March 11 to sign or veto the bill, or it becomes law without his signature.
In mid-February, the Utah House passed the bill 50-21 and the Senate approved it 23-6.
The legislation — House Bill 220 — would affect EnergySolutions’ ability to accept depleted uranium at its Clive waste facility. Right now, Utah law allows only the least-hazardous Class A wastes to be stored in the state, while banning the storage of the more radioactive Class B and Class C wastes.
While depleted uranium is initially Class A, it decays into more radioactive forms that would eventually become Class B and Class C.
HB 220 would classify radioactive materials in the class in which it is initially accepted for disposal, with its future increased radioactivity not being a factor — assuming the wastes otherwise obtain approval by the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and the Utah Waste Management and Radiation Control Board.
“The governor appreciates the legislature’s efforts to address concerns he has had with the legislation,“ Herbert spokesman Paul Edwards said by email.
Those legislative changes included requiring a site to pass a “performance assessment” — essentially a technical analysis — on its ability to protect the public safety and health. And the federal government would have to assume responsibility for the uranium if EnergySolutions goes out of business.
“We appreciate the House and Senate’s thorough evaluation of HB220. The bill effectively protects our state by setting clear requirements and expectations that must be addressed before any significant quantity of depleted uranium can be accepted in our state,” EnergySolutions said in a prepared statement this week. “This legislation sets a standard that as a state we are committed to letting science dictate our environmental policies. We look forward to continuing to work through the legislative process with the Governor and his staff to ensure the best policy for the State of Utah is adopted.”
EnergySolutions is eyeing importing 700,000 to 750,000 metric tons of ground-up and powdered depleted uranium from former uranium enrichment at U.S. Department of Energy sites at Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky. which would be affected by HB 220, said Rusty Lundberg, interim director of the Utah Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control. He did not know the time frame for those proposed shipments.
The depleted uranium would be buried at Clive. But that first required completion of a performance assessment of the facility by the state Department of Environmental Quality, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Advocacy groups including the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah) and the Sierra Club have called on Herbert to veto the legislation. While Class A waste becomes inert after a century, Class B and C material would grow more radioactive over millions of years, these organizations warn.
“HB220 muddies the water on the State’s radioactive waste policies,” HEAL Utah Executive Director Scott Williams said in a Feb. 22 press release. “The only clear thing about HB220 is that it widens the door for depleted uranium to come into Utah. It sends a message that the legislature is okay with importing the nation’s 800,000 metric tons of this waste waiting to be stored.”
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Carl Albrecht (R) received $750 in campaign contributions from EnergySolutions in 2018, the Tribune reported. He did not respond to a RadWaste Monitor message seeking comment. In total, the Salt Lake City-based nuclear services company contributed $44,440 to 38 state legislators last year, while 43 lawmakers received a total of $67,700 in 2017, according to the Tribune.
The bill would not affect last year’s plan by EnergySolutions to accept and store depleted uranium extracted from special U.S. Army bullets, which was estimated to amount to 667 cubic yards of Class A low-level radioactive waste annually for four years. The Waste Management and Radiation Control Board unanimously rejected that proposal last October because that depleted uranium from the bullets appeared more hazardous than expected, Lundberg said.
EnergySolutions operates two of the four U.S. facilities licensed for disposal of low-level radioactive waste, at Clive and Barnwell, S.C. All four facilities are in Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreement states, which assume regulatory authority over certain uses of radioactive materials.
The Clive site already stores depleted uranium oxide powder in casks in below-grade cells, which is also a separate issue from the depleted uranium bullets. The facility has accepted 26,500 cubic yards of uranium dioxide powder so far from Department of Energy sites.
