"Don't put all of your eggs into one basket," Sinclair, the deputy director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, advised. Translation: Don't expect EnergySolutions' low-level radioactive waste dump in Tooele County to fulfill all of your nuclear waste disposal needs.
Sinclair was also outspoken about the state's position on "blended" waste. Industry officials are asking the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to rewrite the definition of Class A waste to allow hotter Class B and C waste to be mixed with milder A waste, the only classification Utah allows EnergySolutions to accept.
But the only way to make A + B + C = A is to remove B and C from the equation. Dilution is not "the solution to pollution," Sinclair explained. Translation: State officials aren't smitten with the attempt to foist hotter waste on the state, and likely would exercise their right to reject blended waste.
And that, due to a lack of disposal space for the nation's low-level waste, and Class B and C waste in particular, leaves 36 states in a bind. Too bad. Don't expect Utah to solve your problem.
Currently, waste producers in 11 states, including Utah, can deposit Class B and C waste at the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-level Radioactive Waste's disposal facility in Hanford, Wash. Three states in the Southeast can utilize the Atlantic Compact's landfill in South Carolina.
The remaining 36 states, after the Atlantic Compact closed the doors to its dump to non-members in July, have no disposal site for B and C waste, and rely exclusively on EnergySolutions for Class A waste disposal. They have only themselves to blame.
The compact system was devised several decades ago to require regions to work together to establish territorial disposal sites. But it hasn't happened. And, by default, EnergySolutions' mile-square disposal facility in Utah has turned into a national dump for Class A waste.
Translation: We're already doing our share.
It's time for the other compacts to develop their own dumps, and stop looking to Utah for answers.
