Two projects of unprecedented size and scope are under way near the shores of the Great Salt Lake. One is the highly publicized, multibillion-dollar revamp of downtown Salt Lake City (dubbed Downtown Rising), which aims to transform the Beehive State's stodgy capital into a world-class cosmopolitan center. It is currently one of the largest private construction projects in the United States.

The other, just 80 miles west of Downtown Rising, is EnergySolutions' Clive facility, currently the largest low-level radioactive waste disposal site in the country. Equally as ambitious, yet steering its recent activities clear of the public eye at all costs, Clive aspires to be the world-class center of the nuclear waste disposal realm.

Both projects will impact the future of our city, state, region and country in profound ways. Downtown Rising, in the words of Downtown Alliance Executive Director Jason Mathis, aims to revitalize Salt Lake City, "helping to steer a course for our capital city's future that is environmentally sustainable, globally relevant and a place that all Utahns can feel proud to call their own."

The Clive facility seeks not only to maintain its dominant market share of America's Class A waste disposal, the least toxic form of radioactive waste and fully within EnergySolutions' Utah contracts, but expand operations in three ways not outlined in legal agreements with the people of Utah.

First is to receive hundreds of thousands of tons of depleted uranium (DU), 10,000 tons of which were shipped quietly just prior to Christmas (Gov. Gary Herbert did not intervene until after the shipment was on its way).

The problem with DU is that it grows more toxic over time, eventually surpassing standards of Class B and C waste, both of which are too toxic for the Clive facility to handle and thus outside the scope of EnergySolutions' Utah contracts. Moreover, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not yet completed its study on the potential human hazards of housing DU, whose radioactivity increases into the Class B and C levels for about 1 million years, at a site designed to contain Class A waste for about 500 years.

Second on the expansionary agenda is to "downblend" or dilute Class B and C waste to the point that it passes off as Class A waste, and can be dumped in Clive's facilities. The problem is that, again, the NRC has not examined the safety of this new disposal method and, again, it is not outlined in initial agreements with Utah.

The third and most recent act in EnergySolutions' interpretive dance comes on the heels of its hard-fought court victory concerning importation of Italian waste. The federal court ruled that neither the Northwest Compact nor Utah has authority over waste entering the Clive site. In response to the ruling, Val Christensen, CEO of EnergySolutions, said that his agreements with former Gov. Jon Huntsman to limit expansion of Clive no longer stand.

EnergySolutions' disregard for existing contracts is unsettling, especially in light of the multibillion-dollar campaign to steer our capital toward an "environmentally sustainable, globally relevant" future. Even more unsettling is the fact that U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees a potentially large component of America's future energy portfolio to be nuclear-based.

If the latter comes to fruition, EnergySolutions' tendency for new and broader interpretations could lead to a boom of epic proportions for the Clive facility, which would translate into a bust for those of us living near it.

According to Downtown Rising's Web site, "Salt Lake City is experiencing a renaissance of sorts. Nearly $2 billion will be invested in the Central Business District during the next five years. Downtown Rising complements this investment by convening people who care about downtown and tapping their best thinking about the future."

Well, I am one of the people who cares about downtown's future and my best thinking leads me to conclude that investing billions of dollars into Salt Lake City's renovation is a risky endeavor, to say the least, with a radioactive neighbor that insists on reinterpreting its legal agreements to welcome ever larger amounts and more dangerous forms of radioactive waste.

To ensure that Salt Lake City's renaissance is truly implemented with an eye to the future, let us demand three things: 1) that Gov. Herbert stop further shipments of DU into Utah -- before the fact, 2) that thorough studies of DU and downblending be completed before any more of it is buried here and 3) that EnergySolutions publicize its contractual reinterpretations.

It is misleading and insulting for the nuclear waste company to tout its scholarship programs in the public eye, advertise its name on the biggest event center in the state, but keep silent about reneging on its contracts with us.

Most fundamentally, can the aspirations of Downtown Rising and the Downtown Alliance be realized in the face of EnergySolutions' unbridled growth?

Casey Coombs is a graduate student at the University of Utah.