Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. allowed the controversial EnergySolutions bill, SB155, to become law on Tuesday — but he is acting to thwart the radioactive waste disposal company's wish to import more waste than currently allowed.
If Huntsman has his way with an interstate compact on low-level radioactive waste, EnergySolutions may not be able to build a "super cell" 85 feet high for disposing the material it seeks. At present, cells are limited to about 41 feet high.
Mike Mower, spokesman for the governor, told reporters that 1,000 calls, letters and e-mails had bombarded the executive office opposing the bill. Only about five people had contacted the office in favor of SB155, he said.
SB155 passed both houses of the Legislature with large majorities, enough to override a veto if lawmakers were to stick with their original votes.
The measure removes the governor and Legislature from direct oversight over what happens on EnergySolutions' property in Tooele County. But the company must operate with the approval of the state's Radiation Control Board and under the purview of the Northwest Interstate Low-Level Waste Compact.
The anti-nuclear Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah immediately attacked Huntsman while EnergySolutions praised the decision.
In a press conference at Huntsman's office Tuesday night, two of his top aides, Mower and Department of Environmental Quality executive director Dianne Nielson, explained that the bill actually was what backers had said all along: a technical cleanup, restoring a provision accidentally knocked out of the statute books in 2004. Huntsman was not there because he was speaking at a long-planned memorial service, Mower said.
The governor will petition the Northwest Interstate Low-Level Waste Compact to limit the volume of waste coming to EnergySolutions to the currently approved volume, as a press release phrased it. In effect, that means no "super cell."
Even though radioactive waste does not come to Utah from the Northwest, the compact governs what waste is disposed of at EnergySolutions. Asked whether the compact had to accept Huntsman's restrictions, Nielson indicated it did.
"The Northwest Compact's authority is derived from the governors who are members of the compact," she said. "So his action has effect for as long as (Utah) governors support that action."
Mower said Huntsman was allowing SB155 to become law without his signature to send a message of disapproval to the Legislature. It did not go far enough in limiting EnergySolutions, he said.
"He thinks the message is conveyed, that the technical changes that needed to be made (in the statute book) will be made, but that the end result will be the one that's of greater benefit to the residents of Utah," Mower said.
"He promised and he pledged and he's carried through on his commitment to try to keep additional nuclear waste out of our state."
"Hotter" waste than Class A, the least radioactive, remains banned from Utah, and EnergySolutions has said it does not want to import it.
A "super cell" would have increased EnergySolutions' capacity from the present 5.5 million cubic yards to 9.8 million cubic yards, according to the officials. The governor's action is intended to limit the amount EnergySolutions accepts to the 5.5 million cubic yards total, Nielson said.
Asked when EnergySolutions would reach the limit of its capacity, Nielson said, "I don't know. It depends on the rate at which they accept the currently approved volumes of Class A waste, as well as the volume remaining for mixed waste and ... uranium mill tailings."
She spelled out the bottom line, as Huntsman sees it: "The governor's objective is to keep additional volumes of nuclear waste that aren't already approved within the existing facility from coming into the state of Utah and being disposed here."
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