The sale announced Wednesday caps Semnani's 17 tumultuous years as head of one of the state's most successful and most controversial businesses and raises questions about what the new owners - Lindsay Goldberg & Bessemer and Steve Creamer of Creamer Investments - plan for the facility.

Envirocare officials released few details about the sale but promised to reveal more at a news conference sometime after Jan. 1. The Wednesday announcement was crafted because "both Mr. Semnani and the new owners felt the public should be aware of the process," said Envirocare Senior Vice President Tim Barney.

While the selling price wasn't revealed, and probably won't be, knowledgeable observers estimated it at as much as $500 million, a price one observer said indicated the new owners believed the Tooele County facility has room to grow.

That could mean pursuing hotter nuclear waste than already is accepted at the desert landfill 80 miles west of Salt Lake City, said David Yuschak, a senior equity analyst with Sanders Morris Harris, a Houston-based financial services holding company.

"Anybody who's buying this is not going to be looking at living off just what is coming in now. You're going to be looking for ways to grow the business," Yuschak said.

A federal General Accounting Office study this summer concluded 36 states will have nowhere to send waste labeled B and C when a South Carolina facility closes in 2008. Envirocare's existing regulatory permit to accept Class B and C waste, hotter and more dangerous than the Class A waste the facility already takes, sweetened the sale, Yuschak said.

"That's an important asset for the new owners to get ramped up on," he said. "It increased the value of the asset being acquired."

Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, agreed.

"I would expect this new firm would probably continue to push for B and C waste, because they would feel they could handle it properly, it needs to be disposed of somewhere and they could make some good money doing it," he said.

Lindsay Goldberg & Bessemer invests primarily in privately held businesses with long-term potential, according to Envirocare's announcement. The firm probably would hand off on-site management to Creamer, whose ISG Resources, Inc., of South Jordan, is the nation's largest recycler of coal combustion products.

Creamer was among a small group of Utah political insiders - including state Republican Chairman Joe Cannon, Envirocare lobbyist Spencer Stokes and lobbyist Nancy Sechrest, a former Department of Environmental Quality employee - who advanced the so-called Plan B for bringing high-level nuclear waste to the state for temporary storage before it went to a federal repository. That plan died quickly in the face of fierce opposition from then-Gov. Mike Leavitt.

Jason Groenewold, spokesman for the nonprofit Healthy Environment Alliance and one of Envirocare's most vocal critics, said he had reservations about Creamer, who made millions by developing the gigantic East Carbon Development Co. commercial landfill in central Utah.

Creamer's apparent role as the local manager of the new Envirocare "isn't welcome news," Groenewold said. "It raises a lot of issues about nuclear waste disposal in the state."

But other lawmakers and Gov.-elect Jon Huntsman Jr. repeated what they have long said: There is no place in Utah for hotter radioactive waste than what is already accepted.

Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, said Semnani telephoned him Wednesday morning to tell him of the sale. Bramble said he wasn't shocked because there have been rumors swirling about a possible sale for some time, and predicted it wouldn't affect Envirocare's dealings with the state.

Class B and C waste is illegal in Utah, he said, "and it will be illegal tomorrow."

"Radioactive waste policy has not been driven by Semnani. It has been driven by good public policy."

Currently, state law requires the consent of both the governor and the Legislature to allow B and C waste in Utah. Some have taken that to mean the material is illegal, though there is no statutory ban on the books and the state Department of Environmental Quality has issued the regulatory permit to Envirocare allowing the waste.

That permit includes a clause that says the Legislature or governor must also approve or the permit is canceled.

Huntsman on Tuesday said through a spokesman that action such as a letter spelling out his opposition wouldn't be necessary because the hotter wastes already are illegal.

In an earlier statement still posted on his campaign Web site, Huntsman said, "If elected, I shall use the full force of my office to oppose all efforts to bring into our state any radioactive waste other than what is currently permitted."

On Wednesday, his spokeswoman, Tammy Kikuchi, said Huntsman got a courtesy "heads-up" about the impending Envirocare sale "a couple of weeks ago" but didn't hear officially until Wednesday. Kikuchi said she didn't know who offered the advance information. She said that Huntsman remains "adamantly opposed" to B and C waste.

Semnani built Envirocare through aggressive business practices - including payments to a key state regulator, who Semnani claimed was extorting him - and carefully cultivated political connections, as well as earning good will through large contributions to various charities.

Bramble credited Semnani for being "a very real part of the community. He has contributed millions to causes."

Semnani also contributed generously to Democratic and Republican politicians and spent more than $1 million to defeat an initiative two years ago that would have banned hotter waste and imposed higher taxes on the industry in Utah.

Envirocare's sale means the state must re-examine its operations, said Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem.

"We want to make certain it continues as a safe depository," he said. "I think [the sale] is going to create a lot of uncertainties."

Dane Finerfrock, director of the Division of Radiation Control, said the state would require from the new owners a description of the changes they will be making, especially regarding radiation safety, before transferring Envirocare's operating permit to them.

Yuschak said Semnani's decision to sell is probably good news for the industry.

"Semnani was getting headlines out there that weren't the best headlines, given the kind of business he was in," he said. "Any time you get that kind of distraction it makes it difficult to make what you're doing more productive."

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Tribune reporter Matt Canham contributed to this report.