Utah appeals to Higher Court
Tamara M. Wright
Issue date: 7/1/09 Section: Community
The State of Utah, The Northwest Interstate Compact, as well as the Rocky Mountain Compact to attempt to overturn the ruling of U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart by filing papers, starting the appeal process, last week in Washington. The ruling in favor of EnergySolutions storing Italian nuclear waste in Utah, stating that the Northwest Interstate Compact, had no authority over the company's disposal site. In what seems to be a never-ending battle, EnergySolutions a private corporation, has been seeking approval from the NRC (The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission) to bring 20,000 tons of Italian nuclear waste to be processed at a plant in Tennessee, compacting it down to 1600 tons, to be stored at the company's Utah site.
EnergySolutions, in the meantime, has filed papers with the NRC, stating that the commission should not wait for the appeal process and allow the license application for the nuclear waste. With thousands of people protesting the import of Italy's low-level, nuclear waste, not to mention the 10 organizations, one of which is the Sierra Club, there seems to be a conflict. The State of Utah, asked the NRC to keep it on hold, until the appeal process has been completed. There is some speculation and worry, that if the application was to go through, that there would be loose nuclear waste, just waiting for storage and that if the appeal ruled in the favor of the State of Utah, that it would have to then be imported back to Italy.
Some Utahns are hoping that in the months of waiting that EnergySolutions has had to do because of lawsuits that Radioactive Import Deterrence Act will be passed through congress. The bill would prohibit the importation of some forms of low-level nuclear waste in the United States. There are 79 sponsors for this bill, one of them being our own Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT). This bill can be seen at the following link.
When interviewed, Mark Walker, Director of Media Relations for EnergySolutions had the following to say, "We are very pleased with the courts ruling. We have always felt confident in our legal position, we are very appreciative of the thoroughness of Judge Stewart's review of the case." Also, "We look forward to continuing the process and working with the NRC in this process to complete the license application." Mr. Walker offered to take The Globe staff members on a tour of the facility to see the expertise the company has in nuclear waste storage as well as how things are run.
Christopher Thomas, the policy director for HEAL, (Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah), had the following to say, ""EnergySolutions is attempting to strip away Utah's right to say 'no' to becoming the world's dumping ground. We applaud the state of Utah for appealing Judge Stewart's misguided ruling." also commenting, ""As for any promise EnergySolutions makes about limiting foreign waste, you have to remember that the company 'promised' back in 2001 not to take any 'out-of-country wastes,' period. And yet [Executive Vice President of Corporate Communications for EnergySolutions], Jill Sigal, now claims the company has been taking foreign waste since 2001. The only thing you can trust is that EnergySolutions will do whatever is best for its bottom line."
There is a document signed by Kenneth Alkema, the Senior Vice President of what was then called Envirocare of Utah Inc. (which is now EnergySolutions) dated August 15, 2001, that states, "The purpose of this letter is to inform you of Envirocare's position on the receipt of out of the country waste. Envirocare has made the policy decision that it will not take out of the country wastes." Some believe this to be a direct conflict to the policy of the re-named company and the issues at hand.
On The Globe website, we had been conducting a poll to see how the general public felt about storing nuclear waste in Utah. We got the following numbers as of June 26, 2009: 59% of the people polled, did not want nuclear waste in Utah. 21% of people didn't care if nuclear waste was stored in Utah, 7% didn't know much about the issue and 14% of people wanted nuclear waste stored in Utah.
Only time will tell how this all plays out and who will make headway in this very serious topic in Utah these days. For more information about the different points of view, you can check out HEAL and their website and EnergySolutions at their website to see both sides of the information and the information that they have to share.
EnergySolutions, in the meantime, has filed papers with the NRC, stating that the commission should not wait for the appeal process and allow the license application for the nuclear waste. With thousands of people protesting the import of Italy's low-level, nuclear waste, not to mention the 10 organizations, one of which is the Sierra Club, there seems to be a conflict. The State of Utah, asked the NRC to keep it on hold, until the appeal process has been completed. There is some speculation and worry, that if the application was to go through, that there would be loose nuclear waste, just waiting for storage and that if the appeal ruled in the favor of the State of Utah, that it would have to then be imported back to Italy.
Some Utahns are hoping that in the months of waiting that EnergySolutions has had to do because of lawsuits that Radioactive Import Deterrence Act will be passed through congress. The bill would prohibit the importation of some forms of low-level nuclear waste in the United States. There are 79 sponsors for this bill, one of them being our own Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT). This bill can be seen at the following link.
When interviewed, Mark Walker, Director of Media Relations for EnergySolutions had the following to say, "We are very pleased with the courts ruling. We have always felt confident in our legal position, we are very appreciative of the thoroughness of Judge Stewart's review of the case." Also, "We look forward to continuing the process and working with the NRC in this process to complete the license application." Mr. Walker offered to take The Globe staff members on a tour of the facility to see the expertise the company has in nuclear waste storage as well as how things are run.
Christopher Thomas, the policy director for HEAL, (Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah), had the following to say, ""EnergySolutions is attempting to strip away Utah's right to say 'no' to becoming the world's dumping ground. We applaud the state of Utah for appealing Judge Stewart's misguided ruling." also commenting, ""As for any promise EnergySolutions makes about limiting foreign waste, you have to remember that the company 'promised' back in 2001 not to take any 'out-of-country wastes,' period. And yet [Executive Vice President of Corporate Communications for EnergySolutions], Jill Sigal, now claims the company has been taking foreign waste since 2001. The only thing you can trust is that EnergySolutions will do whatever is best for its bottom line."
There is a document signed by Kenneth Alkema, the Senior Vice President of what was then called Envirocare of Utah Inc. (which is now EnergySolutions) dated August 15, 2001, that states, "The purpose of this letter is to inform you of Envirocare's position on the receipt of out of the country waste. Envirocare has made the policy decision that it will not take out of the country wastes." Some believe this to be a direct conflict to the policy of the re-named company and the issues at hand.
On The Globe website, we had been conducting a poll to see how the general public felt about storing nuclear waste in Utah. We got the following numbers as of June 26, 2009: 59% of the people polled, did not want nuclear waste in Utah. 21% of people didn't care if nuclear waste was stored in Utah, 7% didn't know much about the issue and 14% of people wanted nuclear waste stored in Utah.
Only time will tell how this all plays out and who will make headway in this very serious topic in Utah these days. For more information about the different points of view, you can check out HEAL and their website and EnergySolutions at their website to see both sides of the information and the information that they have to share.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Jessie Forster
posted 7/01/09 @ 1:41 PM MST
Why on earth would we want to import nuclear waste to Utah?!
Of course I will let my senator know about my feelings on this.
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