Remember the barrels of nuclear waste that Utah had a problem with about 10 years ago? Gov. Gary Herbert froze any further delivery of the the tens of thousands of barrels of so-called depleted uranium pending further studies. HB254 is about to open the door to thousands of barrels of the stuff that EnergySolutions calls depleted uranium (DU) by rewriting Utah law that defines high-level nuclear waste now as: “spent reactor fuel assemblies, dismantled nuclear reactor components, and solid and liquid wastes from fuel reprocessing and defense-related wastes.”
HB254 realigns the definition of nuclear waste with federal definitions. In 2003, the Reagan Energy Act changed the definition of nuclear weapons waste (especially from the Savanna Weapons Facility) to be labeled according to the majority of the components which means that the nuclear weapons waste, including plutonium, cesium, strontium, americium and other dangerous components, could be labeled as low-level waste if it is combined with enough of another material like depleted uranium. So the nuclear weapons waste becomes labeled as depleted uranium instead of the included nuclear weapons waste if one adds enough depleted uranium, which is 40% less radioactive than mined uranium.
The use of the depleted uranium term has caused a lot of confusion since DU was also the term for anti-tank munitions fired into Kosovo farmland in the Balkans war. But the barrels contain nuclear weapons waste. You don’t have to be a scientist to understand that you don’t want to eat food grown in plutonium-contaminated soil.
Ironically, EnergySolutions also tried to import and store old depleted uranium munitions but Utah’s Radiation Control Board studies showed how dangerous that could be.
According to John Hultquist, who worked for the Utah Radiation Control Board in 2011:
“The Savannah depleted uranium trioxide material was produced during the manufacturing of nuclear materials (primarily for nuclear weapons purposes). Uranium target materials were irradiated to produce plutonium for the nuclear weapons program. These irradiated targets went through two processing cycles to remove the vast majority of fission isotopes. However, not all of the fission isotopes and plutonium was removed from the depleted uranium. A small fraction of the technetium and other radioactive materials remained with the depleted uranium. In addition, I have inspected the manifest and they identify Technetium-99; Plutonium 238, 239, 240, 241 and 242; Neptunium 237; and of course Uranium 238.”
(Note that plutonium 240 is taken out of the plutonium used in nuclear bombs because it is unstable and increases radioactivity five times in 100 years.)
This bill just passed the Senate and is now in the enrollment stage.
Utahns need to stop this EnergySolutions backroom deal. Utah should not allow nuclear weapons waste material to be stored here, especially in barrels that deteriorate in a high salt environment.