The fact that Gov.-elect Jon Huntsman had been tipped off to the impending sale of the Tooele County waste facility makes even the slightest waffling on his campaign promise to ban more dangerous classifications of radioactive waste that much more worrisome.

While Huntsman is emphatic in repeating his position that he will not allow the state to house the more threatening kinds of nuclear dregs, there was word from his camp this week that he saw no urgent need to turn that candidate's promise into a governor's order once he takes office Jan. 3.

That lack of urgency, together with the failure of a two-year legislative task force to make any real recommendations, all looks particularly derelict in view of Wednesday's announcement that Envirocare owner Khosrow Semnani is selling his business to a group that includes Utahns who have long been in the waste-handling business and the New York investment firm Lindsay Goldberg & Bessemer.

That firm says it seeks companies that achieve “substantial growth and profit improvement.”

A proper regulatory review of the pending license transfers would establish whether the firm's profitability - and thus its ability to properly close and maintain the site once it is full - depends on allowing it to start accepting the hotter wastes that Utah politicians claim to be against but don't bother to formally ban.

The class A waste that Envirocare now accepts is relatively benign compared to the class B and C wastes, which are hundreds of times more radioactive and can remain so for many hundreds of years. Envirocare has a preliminary permit from the state to store B and C waste, but only if the governor and Legislature specifically approve, which, so far, they have not.

Anti-nuclear activists wish Huntsman would immediately formalize a decision to block Envirocare's B&C license approval. One of Huntsman's top staffers, though, said this week that no such action was necessary and might even complicate the matter further.

It's not clear how such an order from the new governor would make the situation any cloudier, any more likely to be dragged into court, than it already is.

Quite the contrary. Quick action by the governor and the Legislature to limit nuclear waste storage in Utah to the current class A is needed, not only for the peace of mind of Utahns, but for the due diligence needs of the Fifth Avenue firm that plans to buy Envirocare.

Anything less requires forthright explanation.