Another one of EnergySolutions’ trucking companies is in the news. This time it’s not leaking radioactive and toxic liquids in Carbon County. 

This time it’s Cavanaugh Trucking and they are under contract to bring depleted uranium into Utah. And you thought that those friendly guys who let the Jazz play basketball in their arena were just taking glowy watches and medical waste (that seems lucrative…right?) out to the West Desert.

Well think again unsuspecting Utahns!

Depleted Uranium is real honest-to-goodness nuclear waste. The stuff is nasty enough now that it has to be stored in the middle of nowhere where people aren’t, so EnergySolutions buries it in specially constructed (they don't use a plastic shovel) 'berms' with thicker than normal layers of gravel and clay and other types of dirt on top (they are super high-tech and concerned with our safety). They have computerized models that prove these will be safe for the next 500 years, after which time site stewardship is unclear. EnergySolutions doesn't want to be responsible forever (their love for waste is not that enduring), and the state of Utah doesn't want it either.

 So there is one major flaw with the "500-year-berms" plan. Depleted uranium (unlike the watches) becomes increasingly dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years.

Yeah I know, when numbers get this big they lose meaning, but here’s the thing: depleted uranium will out-live EnergySolutions' dump!

500 years is not long enough! When EnergySolutions goes off the clock, depleted uranium will just be getting warmed up. Maybe five hundred years seems like a really long time. But when our not-so-far-distant grandkids are dealing with the waste legacy we let EnergySolutions leave them it won't seem like long enough! There are places that can dispose of this stuff - they just all happen to be deep underground.

We don’t have to let this be our state’s lasting legacy!

Utah’s Radiation Control Board is meeting this coming Tuesday and they will vote to block EnergySolutions continued dumping of depleted uranium or allow it.

Come to the meeting:

WHERE: Department of Environmental Quality Bldg #2, Conference Room 101, 168 North 1950 West, Salt Lake City.
WHEN: Tuesday, September 22nd from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

Get more information, write a letter to the editor of your local paper, and don't miss the board meeting.