In a debate Tuesday night on the KSL program "Conversation With the Candidates," Republican Dew said "the waste is so low-level that I have no problem with bringing and storing it here."

He added that EnergySolutions plans to bring in 20,000 tons of Italian waste to be processed in Tennessee and then "recycle it and sell it to Japan." The company, however, has proposed to permanently dispose of up to 1,600 tons of the processed material in Utah.

That comment caught the attention of Vanessa Pierce, director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah.

"It sounds like he doesn't fully understand what that whole recycling process looks like," she said.

The EnergySolutions contract for Italian waste is for up to 20,000 tons, and spokeswoman Jill Sigal calls it "highly unlikely" that all 20,000 tons would be accepted. However, 8 percent of the accepted amount of material would end up in Utah. That could amount to 1,600 tons of waste that would be stored in the state permanently.

Matheson is pushing a bill that would ban importation of all foreign radioactive waste unless it came from a U.S. defense facility in another country or the president deemed it a matter of national security.

"No other country in the world imports radioactive waste, and I don't know why the United States should," Matheson said during the debate.

He also pointed out that more U.S. nuclear power plants may open as the demand for cleaner energy increases, increasing demand at the facility.

Dew calls his opposition to Matheson's bill more a disagreement over governance than of disposal.

"The best decisions on issues are made by those who are the closest to the issue," Dew said Wednesday.

smcfarland@sltrib.com