While HEAL Utah hosted a rally in the State Capitol rotunda protesting a proposal by EnergySolutions to share revenue from foreign radioactive waste with the state, Tooele County leaders and citizens meeting inside the House majority caucus room heard from Rep. Jim Gowans, D-Tooele, that legislators have not dismissed the idea.

“It is hard to comment on specifics because there is no bill prepared on the subject at this time,” Gowans said. “However, it is my understanding that in exchange for [the state] dropping opposition to bringing in the foreign waste, EnergySolutions would share the revenue from the foreign waste 50-50 with the state.”

Gowans went on to state that the waste EnergySolutions wants to bring in is the same kind of material the company already handles at its Clive facility in the west desert.

“We are talking about booties and gowns and contaminated earth,” said Joyce Hogan, EnergySolutions community relations manager, who was in attendance at the meeting.

The original proposal that was unearthed last week had EnergySolution’s predicting a possible $2 billion in revenue from foreign waste over a 10-year period. The state’s share of that would be $1 billion, according to Mark Walker, EnergySolutions director of media relations.

Under the company’s current agreement with the county, EnergySolutions would pay 5 percent of those $2 million in revenues back to Tooele County in the form of mitigation fees — fees paid to mitigate the negative impacts of hazardous waste disposal.

That means the upside of allowing foreign nuclear waste into the county could be as much as $100 million in mitigation fees over 10 years, according to EnergySolutions’ officials. That total is in addition to mitigation fees the company would pay for disposing of domestic waste.

The foreign waste deal would reverse several years of decline in mitigation fees paid by the company to the county. Last year, EnergySolutions paid the county only $4.6 million in mitigation fees, compared to $6.1 million in 2007 and a peak of $12.1 in 2005.

“The foreign waste stored to be stored at Clive would be the same Class A low-level radioactive waste currently accepted for disposal at the site,” said Jill Sigal, EnergySolutions executive vice-president for corporate communications and government relations. “It would just come from Italy or some other country instead of Texas or another state.”

EnergySolutions has set aside 4.3 acres at Clive, which is less than 5 percent of the facility’s remaining capacity, for foreign waste, according to Sigal.

“With just 5 percent of our total capacity, it would be difficult for Clive to become the waste dump for the entire world,” Hogan said.

Allowing foreign waste would also make the 200 jobs at the Clive facility more secure, said Mark Walker, EnergySolutions director of media relations.

The revenue-splitting deal faces stiff opposition, however.

Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. has threatened to veto any deal lawmakers cut with the company, and Utah Congressman Jim Matheson is also sponsoring federal legislation to forbid the importation of foreign nuclear waste.

“In order for this to pass we would have to put together a veto proof majority, at least two-thirds in both houses, to make any legislation fly over the governor’s veto,” Gowans said.

Last year, EnergySolutions’ proposal to import 20,000 tons of radioactive waste from Italy caught the attention of federal and state officials. The waste was to be processed at the company’s facility in Tennessee with 1,600 tons of domestic low-level waste eventually headed for Clive. EnergySolutions then revealed it had been bringing foreign nuclear waste to its Clive disposal facility for eight years. Waste from Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada and Mexico has entered the nation with the approval of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, been processed at the company’s facility in Tennessee, and then had been shipped to Clive.

Gov. Huntsman used an interstate compact to block the disposal of foreign low-level radioactive waste into the state. The Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal is an intergovernmental agreement involving eight states in the northwest: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The compact promotes shared responsibility among the member states for low-level radioactive waste disposal. The representatives of the member states of the compact adopted, at the request of Gov. Huntsman, a resolution that restricts EnergySolutions from accepting waste of foreign origin. EnergySolutions claims that because they are a private company not operated or licensed by the compact, the compact does not have authority over their operations. EnergySolutions filed a motion for summary judgment in federal court, asking the judge to rule the compact does not have the authority to restrict interstate commerce. That motion is scheduled to be heard later this month.

“We just see an opportunity to help the state during this economic downturn,” said Sigal. “EnergySolutions has accepted international waste at Clive for eight years without any controversy.”

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com