Washington » EnergySolutions told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it would suffer "substantial economic harm" if a license is not granted to import 20,000 tons of Italian low-level radioactive waste because the Salt Lake City-based company had contracts it must fill.

But EnergySolutions President Val Christensen acknowledged under questioning by a congressional committee Friday that there were no signed contracts with Italy or the waste holders.

"Help me here," Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., asked Christensen. "You wrote to the NRC, a federal agency" that you would suffer harm because of existing contracts.

"Because contract negotiations were under way," Christensen responded.

"I'll let that go, but the NRC may not," Gordon countered.

That exchange came during a hearing Friday on legislation that essentially would ban imports of foreign low-level radioactive waste. EnergySolutions is seeking a license from the NRC to process the Italian waste in Tennessee; 1,600 tons of leftover radioactive materials later would be disposed of in the company's site in Tooele County.

Christensen, the company's former general counsel, later tried to clarify his testimony, noting that as a lawyer he doesn't consider memorandums of understanding EnergySolutions has with Italy as binding contracts but that, nonetheless, the company would suffer economic harm if not issued a license.

Rep. Jim Matheson, a Utah Democrat and co-sponsor of the legislation, said there is a gap in U.S. policy on how to deal with the question of importing low-level waste and Congress needs to step up.

"It's hard to see why," Matheson said, "the U.S. would want to import radioactive waste from other countries."

The congressman added that he doesn't buy EnergySolutions' verbal promises that foreign waste would take up no more than 5 percent of its Utah facility.

"These voluntary commitments," Matheson said, "may not have a lot of meaning."

Christensen noted the company previously had licenses from the NRC to import other foreign waste and stressed that no waste would be "orphaned" in Tennessee.

Rep. Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican and nuclear-industry defender, called the whole debate a "political NIMBY" issue, using the acronym for Not In My Back Yard.

"Congress should not be interfering here," Upton said. "We should be having hearings on building new nuclear plants."

EnergySolutions is one of Upton's top donors.

But the chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said he wasn't interested in allowing the United States to become the world's nuclear dump. He said he welcomed many other Italian imports such as Prosciutto and Prada.

"But Italian nuclear waste," Markey said, "makes me say, 'Mamma Mia.' "

Utah has opposed allowing the waste to be disposed of in EnergySolutions' Clive site. The matter now is the subject of litigation between the company and the Northwest Compact, a congressionally sanctioned group that controls low-level waste-storage facilities.

The committee has not scheduled a vote on the legislation.

tburr@sltrib.com