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EnergySolutions says it expects its Utah disposal business to level off for the next few years.
Big government contracts that fueled a boom at the company's hazardous and radioactive waste landfill in Tooele County have largely dried up, said Tye Rogers, vice president for regulatory affairs at the Salt Lake City-based company.
Rogers told the Radiation Control Board last week that about 11 million cubic feet can be expected at the site yearly. At that rate, the specialized landfill, one of just three commercial facilities of its kind in the United States, will have capacity for 20 years.
"We're seeing a lot more volume reduction," he said, explaining that new equipment on the site also makes it possible to use the disposal capacity more efficiently.
The company disposes radioactive and hazardous waste from throughout the United States. Its primary customers traditionally have been nuclear reactors and government cleanups of old atomic weapons sites.
With many of those government cleanups rushing to meet deadlines in recent years, the Utah disposal site has seen a boom. In 2005, the company disposed of a record 25 million cubic feet, and it would have filled up in about six years at that rate.
Capacity is an issue for state regulators because, under state law, the company is required to set aside enough money to close the site to ensure it does not leak and to make sure there is enough money to deal with any environmental catastrophes at the site 100 years or more after closing.
Rogers said the company is working with state regulators to get $13 million into that long-term "perpetual care fund" as soon as possible.
Although the radiation board had suggested a sum of that size would be sufficient, lawmakers rejected the plan last fall and proposed instead to strip away the requirement for the fund altogether. The board said the fund was needed to protect taxpayers from having to pick up the tab for any unexpected cleanup.
A small percentage of the radioactive material buried at the EnergySolutions site will remain hazardous for thousands of years.