So, when the Radiation Control Board rebuffed his latest effort on Friday, Judd said he would put the question to a greater authority.
"We'll probably appeal [the board's ruling] to court," he said. "The way I interpret [state law], there's a violation."
The radiation panel agreed it's worth reviewing waste limits state law imposes on EnergySolutions, formerly known as Envirocare of Utah. Its members voted to have radiation division staff report on how much waste it has permitted at the EnergySolutions landfill in Clive, about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City, and how much waste the company has reported disposing so far.
"We ought to know in light of the allegations what the statute permits," said board member Stephen T. Nelson.
Only minutes earlier, though, the panel had sided with EnergySolutions, which asked the board to throw out Judd's formal request for the board to review the same question.
EnergySolutions' attorney, Craig Galli, told the board Judd and his company, Cedar Mountain Environmental, were not asking the questions at the right time or in the right forum. They could have pressed lawmakers or the radiation board any number of times in the past.
"They sat on their rights," he said.
Judd, president of Envirocare from 1998 to 2002, points to provisions in the state's 1990 radiation control law that trigger a tough, multi-step approval process for an existing company that is growing by 50 percent or more.
He has said state officials have repeatedly ignored those provisions when amending EnergySolutions' original license.
The company has never been required to undertake the multi-step approval process, which requires the Legislature and the governor to sign off. Meanwhile, the state radiation director has approved 80 administrative amendments during the company's 17 years of operation.
If Judd goes forward, he would file suit in the Utah Court of Appeals.
The court recently sent up to the state Supreme Court the radiation board's latest ruling, permission for EnergySolutions to nearly double the size of its boundaries. The higher court asked the appeals court to relinquish a case in which the environment group, the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, said the board had wrongly allowed the expansion.
The radiation board plans to review the waste-allowance issue at its October meeting.
