The Murray Democrat said Tuesday she would not limit the ban to so-called class B and C waste, but instead would make sure her bill would cover anything beyond the lesser class A waste Envirocare of Utah now is allowed to accept at its west desert facility.

Arent says she is working closely with some Republican senators on the bill as well as with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who in his State of the State address last week vowed B and C waste "will not be dumped in Utah."

Arent's bill could be introduced in the Senate as early as Thursday. But it might be overtaken by a competing bill sponsored by Sen. Curtis Bramble, who says he is considering amendments to a pending hazardous waste bill should Envirocare's new owners decide not to pursue the hotter waste.

Arent said her bill is independent of Envirocare's sale or the concerns of its prospective owners, Salt Lake City businessman Steve Creamer and a New York investment firm.

"From my perspective, this has nothing to do with the sale of Envirocare or its new owners," Arent said. "The goal is to get the ban passed."

Arent also discounts Bramble's argument that banning B and C waste in advance of the sale closing, which could be as early as the end of the month, would result in litigation that could take regulatory authority from the Legislature or governor and hand it to the courts.

A week ago, after a Senate committee advanced Bramble's Senate Bill 24, the Provo Republican said that because Envirocare had spent a considerable amount of money - between $5 million and $6 million - to secure its state permit to accept B and C waste, passing a law banning it now could invite a lawsuit.

Bramble has sponsored other legislation, in particular a bill last year that banned certain late-term abortions, that he knew would result in lawsuits. The waste permit is different, he said, because the license is pending and banning the radioactive substances now could amount to an illegal taking of property.

But Arent pointed to an opinion by legislative counsel Robert Rees, who said legislative attorneys didn't believe the regulatory permit amounted to a vested property right.

Envirocare owner Khosrow Semnani in 2001 received a regulatory permit from the state Department of Environmental Quality to accept the B and C waste. On Dec. 15, Semnani announced he had sold Envirocare.

Sources on and off Capitol Hill, including Huntsman's chief of staff, Jason Chaffetz, say Creamer has indicated he will give up the B and C permit if the sale goes through.

State law now requires the consent of the governor and the Legislature to allow B and C waste into Utah. Bramble, who co-chaired a task force that examined radioactive waste and taxation issues, was one of eight task force members who voted against advancing a ban bill Arent presented at the panel's final meeting.

Now, however, Bramble is holding up SB24, which embodies the task force's work. The bill moved forward to a final vote in the Senate on Monday, but Bramble said it probably would face "major modifications" should Envirocare's new owners decline to pursue the B and C license. Bramble won't say exactly how he would amend SB24. But Jason Groenewold, spokesman for the anti-nuclear waste group Healthy Environment Alliance Utah and a persistent critic of the senator and Envirocare, said Bramble's maneuvering "shows that backroom deals are being crafted to control the state's nuclear waste policy."

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Tribune reporter Thomas Burr contributed to this story.

ABCs of radioactive waste

State and federal regulators use an ABC scale to label low-level radioactive waste.

* Class A waste is the least radioactive but most abundant and the only one currently allowed for disposal in Utah.

* Class B and C waste can be thousands of times more radioactive than class A waste and its disposal is not allowed in Utah.