Font ResizeEnergySolutions Inc. says state regulators are tinkering too much with the depleted uranium provisions of its operating license, and the nuclear waste company is sending its lawyer Tuesday, along with a politely worded threat to sue, to the Radiation Control Board.
Company spokesman Mark Walker said EnergySolutions has no comment in advance of the discussion. But the company's eight-page outline of the radiation board's legal options range from what it considers "preferred" to "unacceptable."
"To avoid litigation of this issue," EnergySolutions says, the board must not impose a moratorium or follow through with the pending license change, says the prepared presentation of Craig D. Galli, an attorney for the company. The statement is contained in prepared testimony obtained by The Tribune through an open-records request.
In September, the board opted against a moratorium, which might have forced EnergySolutions to wait more than three years for a federal regulation of depleted uranium, a kind of enrichment waste that gets more hazardous over time.
But in October, the board decided instead to require EnergySolutions to hold off on bringing any more depleted uranium to the company's Tooele County landfill until an updated site-safety review is completed.
The company calls the proposed license change "tantamount to a moratorium" on depleted uranium that would, in effect, cost the company more than $1 million over the next
Board members have been hearing for months from their own attorneys about their legal obligations on depleted uranium. But the board has left open the option of having a closed-door session on the issue right after the EnergySolutions presentation.
Vanessa Pierce, director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, called the company's presentation an attempt to intimidate the board.
"This is a not-so-blatant attempt by EnergySolutions to say, "Go our way or we'll sue'," she said. HEAL, a frequent opponent of the company, had petitioned for a moratorium.
EnergySolutions Inc. has buried about 49,000 tons at its Tooele County landfill for low-level radioactive waste. About 15,000 barrels awaits shipment to Utah from the government cleanup site at Savannah River, S.C.
Federal regulators say it is "Class A'' low-level waste, generally suitable for sites like EnergySolutions, but an in-depth review must be done for large quantities of depleted uranium. The review is not expected until 2012.
The federal government has a stockpile of 700,000 tons, plus two new uranium enrichment plants are expected to generate another 700,000 in the years to come.
Meets Tuesday, 3- 5 p.m. in Conference Room 101 of Building 2 at the Department of Environmental Quality, 168 N. 1950 West, Salt Lake City.
