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WASHINGTON - The head of Utah-based EnergySolutions ripped open a tiny salt packet and poured it into a 2-foot-tall vase half filled with red sand.
The salt, CEO Steve Creamer said, symbolizes the amount of Italian radioactive waste the company wants to store in Utah, and the leftover foot of space represents the amount of storage space remaining.
"Just a pinch," Creamer said Tuesday of the salt.
That may be too much for some members of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, who questioned whether there was enough capacity in the company's Clive, Utah, facility to store waste from the 104 U.S. nuclear power plants, let alone waste from foreign plants.
"Importing foreign waste reduces finite capacity," Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., argued. And "Congress needs to act to stop it."
Gordon, along with Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Rep. Ed Withfield, R-Ky., are hoping to curtail ÂEnergySolutions' plans to bring in about 20,000 tons of radioactive waste from Italy for processing in Tennessee, and the storage of a leftover 1,600 tons in Utah.
Their bill would block, with a few caveats, the foreign importation of radioactive materials for storage in the United States, a prohibition that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is unsure it has the ability to impose.
Utah and the Northwest Compact, a congressionally sanctioned group of states that decides whether to accept waste from outside its region, oppose the Italian waste importation, while the NRC has yet to decide on granting a license to bring it into the United States.
"Everyone seems to be pointing their finger at someone else, saying they don't have the authority," Matheson said. "We have, in my opinion, a regulatory mess."
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., complained that the legislation to block the Italian waste reeked of "not in my backyard" concerns and could be a "distraction from the coming nuclear renaissance many of us are fighting for."
"This isn't necessarily about importing waste from Italy . . . this is about shutting down all of our domestic processing and disposal capabilities, and ultimately about mothballing all of our zero-emission nuclear power plants," said Upton, who has two nuclear plants in his district.
Creamer vowed to the subcommittee that EnergySolutions would put foreign waste in no more than 5 percent of its Utah facility, and would still have the crucial capacity the United States may need.
But how much space EnergySolutions has was up for debate Tuesday as well. While Creamer relied on his sand-filled vase to show the company's capacity, Matheson drilled into an investigator from the General Accountability Office who testified there was more than 30 years of remaining capacity.
But, Matheson pointed out, the investigator extrapolated from one of the lower disposal years, and that he made no allowance for what may happen if any of the 33 applications for new nuclear power plants get approved.
"You didn't predict growth from those new plants?" Matheson asked.
"That's correct," replied Gene Aloise, the director of the GAO's Natural Resources and Environment section in the Denver Field Office.
The panel didn't vote on the legislation, though the hearing did indicate hesitancy by some members on the bill that could trip up efforts to get it passed before the session ends. Matheson said the concerns come from some members, like Upton, who have nuclear power plants in their home districts and want to ensure there is a place for the radioactive waste, a point he says underscores the anti-Italian waste legislation.
"Every operating power plant sends waste to Utah now. They're all using this facility now," Matheson said after the hearing. "Do they want this facility to get filled up faster with foreign waste? I think the answer is no."
* Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., received $1,500 earlier this year from EnergySolutions' political action committee and $3,000 from the Nuclear Energy Institute, according to campaign records. Electric utilities were the top source of industry contributions to his campaign this cycle - nearly $73,000 at last count, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics.
* EnergySolutions staff is the second most generous donor to Rep. John Dingall, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The staff members have given more than $24,000 to Dingall this cycle, according to the center.