Font ResizeUtah's Radiation Control Board will dig deeper into the long-term risks of depleted uranium before it decides whether the unusual form of low-level radioactive waste warrants a moratorium.
But an attorney for EnergySolutions Inc. cautioned board members about legal and technical challenges they will face if they try banning depleted uranium temporarily or permanently.
"It's a fairly high bar" for the board to justify a moratorium, said attorney James Holtkamp.
Board members said they would rather have waited for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to wrap up its own in-depth study of how much DU, as its called, can be safely buried in a shallow disposal site like EnergySolutions' mile-square landfill in Tooele County.
But the that federal review could take years, and DU is already piled up at government nuclear sites and an equal amount is expected from new uranium enrichment plants coming online in the next few years. NRC estimates the total needing disposal at 1.4 million tons, with just two disposal sites available to take it: EnergySolutions and a yet-to-be-opened Texas landfill.
DU in small amounts clearly falls within Class A for low-level waste, as the NRC reaffirmed a few months ago. But, because DU transforms over time to high-radon "decay" products, it actually gets more hazardous over time and peaks in danger in 1 million years.
EnergySolutions said it has disposed of 49,000 tons of DU in the past 20
That's a problem for regulators.
Do they write a law that ensures the safety of public health and the environment for 100 years? A thousand years? A million?
"First of all, I believe the public should be protected and the environment should be protected," said board vice chair Elizabeth Goryunova, suggesting that the board had a responsibility to consider the need for a moratorium despite hassles that might be involved in imposing one. "That's absolutely a must."
Board members will hear presentations from Energy-Solutions, the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah and its legal advisors at its next meeting.
"I think it behooves us in terms of our responsibility," said board member David Tripp, a University of Utah physicist.
Vanessa Pierce of HEAL was pleased with the board's decision to take more time on the subject. HEAL requested the moratorium at the board's May meeting.
"They're showing good due diligence," she said, "in how they are proceeding with this issue."
State regulators tried to impose curbs on hazardous waste that some thought too tough. Legislators responded in 1987 by making it illegal for state environmental laws and regulations to be tougher than federal ones, except when regulators can prove that the tougher law is necessary to protect the public health and safety.
