State inspectors will be on hand today as EnergySolutions Inc. begins unloading a trainload of depleted uranium from the federal government's Savannah River cleanup site in South Carolina.

The low-level radioactive waste, which arrived Sunday night, won't be buried just yet, thanks to an agreement hammered out last week between Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and the U.S. Energy Department.

Instead, the 5,408 drums of low-level radioactive waste will be placed in a specialized landfill for storage until Utah regulators can finish updating state disposal requirements, provisions aimed at making sure the state does not get stuck with radioactive waste that cannot be effectively contained at the EnergySolutions disposal site.

Dane Finerfrock, director of the Utah Division of Radiation Control, said his staff was on hand Monday to review the shipping papers for the waste and check the manifests against the content of a sampling of drums.

EnergySolutions, which operates the landfill about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City, had little to say about the controversial cargo.

"Pursuant to the agreement between the governor and the Department of Energy," said company President Val Christensen, "the shipment of depleted uranium arrived at the Clive [Tooele County] facility at about 9 p.m." Sunday.

Two more shipments, bringing the total to 15,400 barrels, will come to Utah if and when a new site assessment is approved. That review is expected to take months or even as long as a year.

The EnergySolutions site already contains an estimated 49,000 tons of depleted uranium, a byproduct of nuclear fuel enrichment and bomb-making that has the unusual quality of becoming more hazardous over time. EnergySolutions has said the radiological hazard limit set by state law won't be exceeded for at least 35,000 years for the depleted uranium already at the site. The 11,000 tons coming from South Carolina could shrink that time frame.

Christopher Thomas, policy director for the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, said Monday his group has asked the state Division of Radiation Control to extend the public comment period on a pending license change by 30 days.

The comment period was to close Dec. 23, but Thomas said the public ought to be able to have an opportunity to weigh in on a key part of the license change: a provision that requires the company to put up a surety bond to cover the cost of digging up depleted uranium if the site is eventually found to be unsuitable.

Trouble is, said Thomas, there is no other U.S. site that can take the waste even if it does not belong in Utah. It could be orphaned here, he said.

"It's like a game of hot potato," he said, "and the Energy Department has tagged us as 'it.' Now it's sitting in our lap and nobody else is playing."

fahys@sltrib.com
Depleted uranium

EnergySolutions' Tooele County landfill for low-level radioactive waste already contains 49,000 tons of depleted uranium. An additional 5,408 barrels arrived Sunday from South Carolina, but under an agreement between Gov. Gary Herbert and the Department of Energy, the waste will be temporarily stored -- not buried for permanent disposal -- pending further review. The Energy Department has about 700,000 more tons of depleted uranium at sites around the nation that will need to be disposed of in coming years.