14,800 barrels of controversial material heading to EnergySolutions as regulators debate disposal guidelines

It’s been as mysterious as the Orient Express with more plot twists than “3:10 to Yuma,” but the saga of depleted uranium disposal in Utah appears to now be on a straightforward track, with the Department of Energy set to ship 14,800 barrels full of DU by rail to EnergySolutions’ Clive facility.

“We are currently ready to send the depleted uranium to the Energy Solutions site by train in three shipments,” said Lauren Milone, spokeswoman for the DOE.

Milone said the transportation of DU would begin soon, declining to be more specific on the timetable for security reasons.

In the meantime, federal and state regulators are in the process of determining new standards for the safe disposal of DU — standards that won’t be determined until after the controversial material is already stored at Clive.

In March 2009, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reaffirmed its classification of DU as a Class A low-level waste, the type received daily by EnergySolutions at Clive. However the NRC also announced plans to develop new regulations governing the disposal of large quantities of DU. This regulation development process is expected to conclude Dec. 2010, according to NRC officials.

In the meantime, the Utah Radiation Control Board, at the request of HEAL Utah, considered placing a moratorium on the acceptance of additional DU for disposal in Utah until the NRC regulations were completed. The board then decided at its September meeting not to place a moratorium on DU, but to require that any DU accepted prior to the final NRC regulations to be ultimately disposed of in compliance with future NRC standards.

In October, the board decided to require EnergySolutions to complete a site analysis study to show that it could safely store DU at the Clive facility before accepting additional depleted uranium.

The site analysis would take at least a year to complete and was tantamount to a moratorium, according to EnergySolutions.

In a November meeting, following a brief closed-door session, the radiation control board rescinded its previous decision, requiring the site study, but decided to implement its own rule-making process to develop standards for disposing of DU, according to Donna Spangler, public information officer for the state Department of Environmental Quality.

“The rule-making process will take about 90 to 120 days, including time for public input,” Spangler said. “That gives EnergySolutions a brief window to accept depleted uranium under their current license and department policies.”

News that the DOE shipment was headed to Utah was a blow to DU opponents like HEAL Utah.

“We thought we had this shipment stopped until rules governing depleted uranium could be developed,” said Claire Geddes, spokesperson for HEAL Utah. “It just make sense to ship it once to the right location to be disposed of properly.”

EnergySolutions officials say they have 49,000 tons of depleted uranium already stored at Clive. The 14,800 barrels will add 10,000 tons of depleted uranium to that total.

Unlike other forms of Class A waste received by Clive, depleted uranium becomes more radioactive as it decays. In fact, depleted uranium will eventually reach levels of radioactivity that exceed Class B or C waste, according to Vanessa Pierce, executive director of HEAL Utah.

The depleted uranium coming to Clive is from the federal clean up of the Savannah River Project in South Carolina where the Department of Energy enriched uranium for use in nuclear weapons.

Natural uranium exists in two primary forms, U-238 and U-235, with roughly 99 percent of natural uranium being of the U-238 variety. In the enrichment process, the U-235 is removed and used as fuel for reactors or in weapons, leaving behind U-238 depleted of U-235.

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com