EnergySolutions breaks a promise

Tribune Editorial

Updated: 02/05/2010 06:03:52 PM MST

EnergySolutions bought the naming rights to the local arena, endowed a chair at the state's largest university and cut a commercial that portrays the company as the greatest thing in waste disposal since the garbage can. It spent a bundle on public relations. Then it squandered every cent of goodwill by reneging on a deal not to expand its Utah landfill.

When former Gov. Jon Huntsman negotiated the agreement, and EnergySolutions agreed to the terms in March 2007, the end was supposedly in sight. When the company's disposal facility in Tooele County was full, Utah's tour of duty as the sole repository for low-level radioactive waste from 36 states would be over. No expansions.

But now, company officials say a federal court has set it free from the agreement that, according to Gov. Gary Herbert and state environmental regulators, is still binding. It's a safe bet that, should the state ever attempt to block an expansion of the landfill, the courts will be asked to decide.

EnergySolutions' President Val Christensen claims the deal was invalidated when the U.S. District Court for Utah ruled that the eight-state Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management has no authority over waste brought to Utah by EnergySolutions, a private, publicly traded firm. The company had filed suit when the compact denied its request to import low-level waste from Italy, and the compact and the state are appealing the ruling. Utah derives its power to refuse waste through its membership in the congressionally approved compact.

EnergySolutions has no immediate plans to expand. But, judging by its aggressive attempt to improve its bottom line by bringing a greater volume and variety of waste to Utah, it's easy to see why Christensen wants to keep his options open.

The company has sued to accept radioactive waste from Italy, and lobbied against a law to ban foreign waste from our shores. It hopes to become the primary depository for approximately 700,000 tons of depleted uranium, a material that grows hotter over time and will eventually exceed state safety standards. And the company is encouraging the federal Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to permit the blending of radioactive waste, which would allow hotter categories of waste to be brought to Utah.

EnergySolutions may win its regulatory battles. But it will never win Utahns' hearts and minds. The company can make all the donations and hang its name on all the arenas and buy all the positive publicity it wants. But it will be wasting its money until it learns how to keep its promises to the people who've allowed it to prosper.