An EnergySolutions proposal to take low-level radioactive waste from Ontario, Canada at its Clive, Utah disposal site will be the focus of an upcoming special meeting of the Northwest Interstate Compact On Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management.
According to a public notice, the Nov. 25 public meeting will consider a draft for “possibly accepting LLRW waste from the Province of Ontario, Canada for disposal at the EnergySolutions Clive, Utah facility.”
“The committee will review the draft arrangement … and may consider action on the request,” according to an online cover letter about the meeting. The session will originate from a Washington state Department of Health office in Tumwater, Wash. It is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time and can be accessed via Microsoft Teams.
The Salt Lake Tribune, working with the environmental news service Grist, reported Nov. 6 that EnergySolutions wants to import more than 1 million cubic yards of the Canadian waste to its Clive disposal site.
On Sept. 9, the compact committee received a request from EnergySolutions for the disposal of Class A, low-level was from Ontario.
EnergySolutions management, including Joe Heckman, president of the company’s waste management wing, briefed the committee on the proposal on Oct. 9, according to minutes of that meeting.
Heckman said “everything received from Ontario would be dry active waste and metal waste similar to what their facility currently receives from US customers,” according to minutes of the October session.
Approving the plan will require six out of eight states in the interstate compact to approve, with Utah having veto power, which means Utah must vote yes, according to the minutes.
“While located across the nations’ northern border, these facilities in Ontario currently provide electricity to customers in the United States,” EnergySolutions said in a statement emailed to Exchange Monitor Wednesday from a spokesperson. “The type of material being proposed for disposal is identical to the same low-level waste the facility has safely managed for more than thirty years.”
“During that time, EnergySolutions has partnered with commercial utilities and local community leaders to support the safe and responsible management of low-level nuclear materials at its Clive facility,” the company said. “This initiative continues that long-standing partnership while generating revenue for the state to advance safe, emission-free nuclear power.”
Congress created the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management in 1985, according to the organization’s website. The original seven member states were Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. The eighth, Wyoming, joined the group in March 1992.
The Clive Disposal Facility is located in Utah’s West Desert about 75 miles west of Salt Lake City. It takes a variety of radioactive and mixed waste from nuclear power plants, federal installations and medical facilities.
Clive is also one of two facilities where the Department of Energy wants to send some of the less-radioactive grouted tank waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state.