While state and federal regulators debate whether EnergySolutions should be allowed to continue disposing of depleted uranium, a shipment of depleted uranium is on to its way to the company’s Clive facility courtesy of the federal government.
The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering new standards for the disposal of large amounts of depleted uranium, and the state Radiation Control Board is mulling over a proposal to institute a moratorium on the storage of depleted uranium in the state until those new standards are in place.
In the meantime, the Department of Energy has entered into a $3.4 million contract with Cavanagh Services Group, a Salt Lake City-based environmental project management and transportation services company, to ship 14,800 barrels of depleted uranium from the Savannah River cleanup site in South Carolina to Tooele County for final disposal at EnergySolutions’ Clive facility. The DOE contract with Cavanagh is funded by the federal stimulus program.
“This is why we asked the Radiation Control Board for a moratorium back in May,” said Chris Thomas of HEAL Utah, a Salt Lake City-based environmental watchdog group. “We knew that because of the stimulus money this waste would be coming.”
EnergySolutions has already accepted 49,000 metric tons of depleted uranium for storage at Clive, according to Mark Walker, director of media relations for EnergySolutions.
“We have disposed of depleted uranium safely in compliance with all regulations in the past and will continue to do so in the future,” Walker said. “We have already accepted similar depleted uranium from the Savannah site. This will be our final shipment to complete our agreement for the Savannah cleanup. The state Department of Environmental quality and HEAL Utah were all aware that this material was coming. We talked about it at a recent Radiation Control Board meeting. It should not be a surprise.”
The barrels should be arriving at Clive in three or four shipments over the next 12 to 18 months, according to Walker.
The 14,800 barrels will add another 10,000 metric tons of depleted uranium to Clive, increasing the amount of depleted uranium stored there by 20 percent, according to Walker.
Depleted uranium, while classified as low-level class A radioactive waste by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is different from other class A waste because over time it increases in radioactivity and takes a longer time to decay to a safe level.
Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com
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