Font ResizeWashington » A House committee advanced legislation Thursday that would block Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions' plan to import 20,000 tons of Italian radioactive waste into the United States and bury some of it in Utah.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee overwhelmingly approved the legislation, mostly along party lines, that bars any foreign low-level radioactive waste to be brought onto American soil for storage or disposal.
Rep. Jim Matheson, a Utah Democrat and bill co-sponsor, said the next battle is to get the measure to the full House for a vote, which he says could come in December.
"If it comes up for a vote, I think we've got the votes to win," Matheson said.
Committee members passed the bill 34-12, with all but four Republicans on the panel opposing the legislation. Several GOP members said the bill would go against trade deals being struck with Italy and other countries and also injects Congress into an issue currently before the courts.
EnergySolutions won a first round in court over the issue of whether Utah and a congressionally chartered nuclear waste compact could block the Italian waste from being buried at the company's Tooele County facility. Utah and the Northwest Compact have appealed.
Rep. Ed Whitfield, a Kentucky Republican who initially co-sponsored the legislation, said research has shown there is no capacity concern at the EnergySolutions'
"Obviously, we already have a domestic business in the business of accepting low-level radioactive waste," he said, noting that 14 licenses have been approved previously to import foreign waste without objection.
He called the legislation "shortsighted."
The bill's main sponsor, Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., said opponents are misguided in their criticism since U.S. companies are free to build waste sites in other countries. The measure would preserve the space at EnergySolutions' facility for domestically produced nuclear waste, he said.
The committee rejected, largely along party lines, an amendment by Whitfield that would essentially allow the waste into the United States as long as the NRC said there is enough capacity left. EnergySolutions has promised to only fill up to 5 percent of its Clive facility with foreign waste and only during a 10-year period.
EnergySolutions officials previously said they expect the bill to pass in the House but that it will have a serious battle getting through the Senate.
Company president Val Christensen, who recently testified before the committee, said EnergySolutions wasn't surprised at the vote Thursday, but that it flies in the face of the Obama administration's efforts toward international nuclear cooperation.
"If passed, this bill will prevent American companies from playing an international role in the global nuclear energy industry," Christensen said.
Sometimes stereotypes are hard to beat, even if you're talking about low-level radioactive waste.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., sparked applause -- and a few boos -- when instead of simply explaining his support for a bill to bar the importation of foreign waste, he sang it. The audience was stunned; some had gaping mouths, while others began shouting for the congressman to halt.
Here are the lyrics Markey sang, with apologies to Dean Martin, to the tune of "That's Amore":
"When the trash piles high
Reaches up to the sky
No amore!
Roman nuclear waste
Will it come to the States
To be dumped!!
It may come, twenty thousand tons, twenty thousand tons
Utah says "That's no bella!
We don't want that imported junk, that imported junk!
hold on, fellas!
Scuzza me, NRC
We and old Tennessee
Say NO MORE-AY!!"
