Details of the sale - including what the company plans to do with its regulatory permit to accept waste thousands of times more radioactive than the so-called Class A waste it now takes at its west desert facility - were expected today.

The sale price wasn't disclosed, and may never be. Industry observers have guessed Creamer and Lindsay Goldberg & Bessemer, a firm started by former Morgan Stanley investment bankers, paid more than a half-billion dollars for the facility 80 miles west of Salt Lake City.

As the sale closed, legislation that would prevent Envirocare from accepting Class B and C radioactive waste coincidentally emerged in the state Senate.

Sen. Patrice Arent, D-Murray, and six allies are backing Senate Bill 166, a bipartisan measure that seeks to ban the hotter waste and prohibit a company or person from even applying to accept the material. Its co-sponsors are Republican Sens. Lyle Hillyard of Logan, Dave Thomas of South Weber, Greg Bell of Fruit Heights and Allen Christensen of North Ogden. Fellow Democratic Sens. Paula Julander and Karen Hale, both of Salt Lake City, also signed on to Arent's bill.

The proposal was assigned to the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, whose chairman, Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, is sponsoring Senate Bill 24, a competing proposal which originated with a task force that met for two years to examine hazardous and radioactive waste disposal.

Bramble last week put a hold on his bill, saying he would make "major modifications" to it if Envirocare's new owners relinquished their B and C waste permit, as sources on and off Capitol Hill have predicted.

"I anticipate there will be some other announcements'' today, Bramble said. "The whole issue of a statutory ban [on B and C waste] is relevant to whether that permit is still pending."

Envirocare now may accept only Class A waste, which mostly consists of radioactive dirt. In 2001 state regulators approved the company's technical plan for accepting B and C waste.

However, state law requires the consent of the governor and the Legislature to allow the hotter waste into Utah. The company has not requested that approval.

Amendments to SB24 would be bipartisan with a "significant number of co-sponsors" and would be rolled out as early as Wednesday, Bramble said.

As chairman of the Revenue and Taxation Committee, Bramble has ultimate say on whether Arent's bill ever will be heard. He said any frustration she may feel about that was unwarranted, as the committee is where every radioactive waste bill has been heard.

But Arent, also a member of the hazardous and radioactive waste task force, noted the panel's findings were first heard before the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee.

"I view this as a health issue and would have liked to have seen it go to the Health [and Human Services] Committee," she said.

Envirocare critic and activist Claire Geddes said the new owners' apparent ability to influence public policy is worrisome.

While Envirocare's former owner, Khosrow Semnani, was skillful in working with politicians, Bramble's willingness to tailor his bill to the new owners ''speaks volumes,'' she said. ''From what I can see so far, it looks to me like this group might have increased political clout.''