Thursday, May 4, 2000
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNEN-Waste Disposal Plan Moves a Step Forward
BY JIM WOOLF
A proposal to open the Envirocare of Utah disposal site to the nation's low-level radioactive wastes moved a small step forward Wednesday. The Utah Division of Radiation Control ruled that Envirocare's disposal site, located about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City in a remote area of Tooele County, meets the state's minimum requirements for a commercial disposal facility. These requirements assure that disposal sites are not located near homes, schools, rivers or important groundwater deposits.
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNEThe decision comes as no surprise, since several other disposal facilities already have been permitted in this part of Tooele County.
"It is something we expected to happen," Envirocare President Charles Judd said Wednesday. "Now we get to start on the actual application."
Envirocare already accepts mildly radioactive wastes at its site, but approval for that operation was granted before the siting requirements were established by the Utah Legislature. Since the company now is proposing a significant expansion of its operation to handle the full range of low-level radioactive wastes, it must go through the entire permitting process as though it were a new facility.
Bill Sinclair, director of the radiation control agency, said Envirocare now faces three larger hurdles.
The next step will be a review of Envirocare's detailed plan for handling the wastes. Company officials hope to have this done by January. Assuming state regulators determine the project meets all state and federal rules, Envirocare will face two final political obstacles: convincing the Utah Legislature and the governor to authorize the project.
Federal law defines low-level radioactive wastes as contaminated materials that will decay to non-hazardous levels in 500 years or less. Most of these wastes come from nuclear power plants and facilities associated with the production of nuclear weapons.
Low-level radioactive wastes are subdivided into three classes: A, B and C. Class A wastes decay rapidly and generally are only mildly radioactive. This is the material now accepted at Envirocare. It usually is contaminated dirt that arrives by the trainload to be buried in the company's disposal cell.
Envirocare is proposing to expand its operation to accept both B and C wastes. These can be thousands of times more radioactive than Class A wastes and will need to be transported in sealed transportation casks before being buried in concrete vaults.
There are only two sites in the nation that now accept Class B and C low-level radioactive wastes: Hanford, Wash., and Barnwell, S.C. State officials in South Carolina are in the process of closing that site, creating the business opportunity for Envirocare.
Opponents recently said they would "march down South Temple naked" if that is what it takes to draw public attention to the risk of bringing this much more dangerous waste to Utah.