A coalition of 88 citizen groups critical of nuclear energy are asking a regional authority for the Northwest to reject a plan by EnergySolutions to import up to 1.3 million cubic yards of low-level radioactive waste from Ontario, Canada to the company’s disposal site in Clive, Utah.
The groups, including Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah) and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, laid out their objections in a Dec. 17 letter to the Northwest Interstate Compact for Low-Level Nuclear Waste Management.
The Interstate Compact is scheduled to take up the issue today (Friday) in Washington state.
“Since the first Congressional authorization of interstate nuclear waste compacts in 1985, there have been no foreign-generated wastes permanently disposed in so-called “low-level” radioactive waste disposal facilities in this country,” according to the letter. “No compacts or states have accepted foreign waste.”
The compact was initially supposed to take up the matter before Thanksgiving, but the meeting was postponed.
The compact received a request in September from EnergySolutions for the disposal of Class A, low-level waste from Ontario. EnergySolutions has said the waste is similar in radiological content to what is already stored at the Clive site. The company also said the waste was generated by Ontario facilities that help provide electricity to customers in the United States.