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Federal regulators are giving the public more time to weigh in on EnergySolutions Inc.'s plans to incinerate radioactive waste from Germany.
The new deadline for submitting comments to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is Jan. 18. The original deadline was Dec. 30.
The Salt Lake City nuclear waste company's latest import request differs from past ones — including a hotly contested proposal to bury radioactive waste from Italy in Utah — because incinerator ash would be shipped back to the originating country after being processed at an EnergySolutions' plant in Tennessee.
A group called the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee has requested a public hearing on the import-export application, noting that incineration "releases a number of contaminants into the air that are difficult or impossible to capture in filters [including] tritium and mercury."
In addition, the Rev. Marcia C. Free of Knoxville, Tenn., urged the NRC to provide still more time for comment.
"The enormity of this enterprise demands thorough study and public participation," she wrote in her Dec. 24 request. "This is the foot in the door to bringing all the world's nuclear waste to the United States so that businesses such as EnergySolutions can turn a profit. Our citizens should have ample time to become informed and to have a say in whether we want nuclear waste brought into our country."
Raphael P. Kuyler, representing EnergySolutions, urged the NRC to reject Free's request for a 45-day extension.
He said her request came too late and was "excessive and unwarranted."
The Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah is also expected to weigh in on the license request.
To weigh in:
A Federal Register announcement about the original license request includes information about commenting: http://bit.ly/fU0lj1. The NRC Web page will be out of service through the holiday weekend, but when it is open again on Monday you can link to the EnergySolutions import application here: http://wba.nrc.gov:8080/ves/view_contents.jsp.