The ban on the waste, which can be thousands of times hotter than what Envirocare of Utah now accepts, comes after years of contention about its safety and how its acceptance here might harm Utah's image.

"This was a good bipartisan issue," Huntsman said, squaring the stack of paper the bill was printed on. "Here I am, ready to sign it."

Flanked by lawmakers, environmental activists and Envirocare owners and managers, Huntsman passed the bill to Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, on whose signature the law went into effect.

Huntsman, who made banning the waste one of his key campaign issues, passed the pen to bill sponsor, Sen. Curtis Bramble. "It's plastic," the governor said.

Bramble, who for years fought passage of a statutory ban on the B and C waste, originally helped craft Senate Bill 24 to adjust hazardous and radioactive waste tax rates and to impose more regulatory oversight on radioactive waste companies.

He substituted that bill with one including a ban after learning the new owners of Envirocare - Salt Lake City businessman Steve Creamer and a New York venture capital firm - planned to relinquish a regulatory permit to accept the waste once the sale closed at the end of January.