Without it, rail cars of low-level radioactive waste would have nowhere to go.

That kind of notoriety is making the Utah public and policymakers uneasy, a state regulator said Wednesday.

Bill Sinclair, deputy director of Utah's Department of Environmental Quality, advised an industry group here: "Don't put all of your eggs into one basket."

He was talking about Utah's low-level waste disposal site in Tooele County.

Sinclair was speaking at a forum sponsored by Exchange Monitor Publications that involves local, state, regional, national and international regulators, as well as businesses that provide cleanup, disposal and treatment of low-level radioactive waste.

High-level nuclear waste, like spent nuclear fuel, is not allowed in Utah. And the low-level waste permitted at the EnergySolutions Inc. site comes from 36 states and federal government cleanups.

With the closure last summer of a disposal site in Barnwell, S.C., to waste from all but three states, most of the low-level waste in the nation now has nowhere to go but Utah. And some low-level waste - hotter Class B and C low-level waste that the Legislature outlawed three years ago - has no disposal available.

The industry's solution has been to consider a variety of options:

* Using hazardous waste sites for waste mildly contaminated with radiation.

* Blending mildly contaminated waste with hotter waste so that it is eligible for disposal at the EnergySolutions site.

* Updating regulations so that less hazardous waste is classified as the Class A waste allowed in Utah.

Speakers from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the trade association for nuclear companies, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), talked about their efforts to rethink the current limits on mixing waste.

Without risking the public health and safety, they hope to ease restrictions on mixing so some of the Class B and C waste is diluted enough to meet state restrictions on radioactivity concentrations. NEI's Ralph Andersen said states like Utah would be free to decide if they don't want the waste that has been blended.

"The time is right to reconsider the [regulatory] framework and make changes that make sense," he said.

Sinclair bristled at the notion that "the solution to pollution is dilution" in the case of radioactive materials. Mixing B and C waste with less-contaminated material might not be an acceptable solution from the state's perspective, he said.

"It causes us concern," he said.

Bret Rogers, representing EnergySolutions, indicated little needs to be done with federal regulations to accommodate mixing. He said there already is much flexibility in the NRC regulations.

But Scott Kirk, of Waste Control Specialists, urged colleagues to reconsider any changes to the mixing regulation. He said it might trigger both regulatory complications and public-perception problems.

"Waste that is diluted may not be acceptable for disposal under Texas rules," he said.

Still, Waste Control Specialists might be in a position in the next couple of years to provide a solution to the hotter waste.

Kirk's company received a draft license for a new low-level waste disposal facility for Class A, B and C waste last month. If it receives final approval, it would be the first low-level waste facility approved under the federal law enacted in the 1980's

fahys@sltrib.com

Factors that give Utah's EnergySolutions disposal site a high profile:

* Proposal to import waste from Italy and possibly other nations.

* Prospect of future expansion, if the politicians and public will allow.

* Proposal for blending/mixing waste.

* Need for additional disposal capacity for low-level nuclear waste.