SALT LAKE CITY — If you start out with one teapot and a bag of Earl Grey blend, no matter how long you let the bag steep, you still end up with tea.

That analogy, offered by the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, was touched on with reporters Monday while Gregory Jaczko was in Salt Lake City for a meeting of the Health Physics Society.

Processed low-level radioactive waste or so-called "blended waste" — if it remains Class A material — "it is Class A material," Jaczko said.

EnergySolutions' efforts to store the processed waste at its Clive facility have been met with criticism from some environmental advocacy groups and elicited a public policy statement of opposition to the practice by state regulators and Gov. Gary Herbert.

The board, however, was careful to note that it recognized down-blended waste does not pose any unique health and safety issues, but emphasized it was opposed if the intent of blending is to alter the waste's classification.

Such intricacies and "fine-lines" are at the heart of an intense layer of review being undertaken by the commission as it weighs the issue and prepares to announce what path it will take in the coming months.

At a meeting two weeks ago, the commission heard from its staff regarding recommendations on the safe disposal of the processed waste and how and when site-specific storage requirements should be implemented.

"What we want to do is protect the public well out into the future," Jaczko said. "We raise these issues and these concerns because it is our job."

Similarly, Jaczko said he understands that the public — even if the waste stays at the lowest level of radioactivity (Class A) — wants assurances that protections are in place for thousands of years to come.

"The hazards and risks are hazards of exposure to individuals after these disposal sites are closed," he said. "While the facility is open, there is very little risk to the public."

Comparable scrutiny is being focused nationally on the storage of significant quantities of depleted uranium, another issue tackled by Utah regulators, who recently crafted a rule that imposes additional requirements for long-term storage.

Jaczko said the commission hopes to have its own regulations in draft form by the end of 2011, with a finalized rule in place by 2012.

Such revisions of the rules regarding storage of radioactive materials are being precipitated by a number of factors, including the fact that updates have not been made in decades and when the rules were crafted, they were designed for waste streams being handled at the time.

"Only lately have we seen these large quantities of depleted uranium," which is a phenomenon forcing regulators to rethink storage of a material that takes on new characteristics over time, Jaczko said.

Depleted uranium, a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process, is anticipated to present a new disposal and storage challenge as the United States looks to expand its nuclear power program.

e-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com