Utah, say federal regulators, can help solve a big problem for the nuclear industry: the pileup of low-level radioactive waste at many of the nation's reactors.

Much of the hottest low-level waste -- though far less radioactive than used fuel rods -- is stored at 90 power plants because nuclear companies have nowhere to dispose of it.

So, staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed changing federal rules to make that waste permissible at the EnergySolutions Inc. disposal site in Utah through "blending." By allowing more hazardous "Class B and C waste" to be mixed with lower-hazard "Class A" waste, regulators would make the blend legal for disposal at EnergySolutions, the only commercial site open to low-level radioactive waste from 36 states.

The blending proposal reflects a big shift in NRC policy, and it directly contradicts the public positions of Gov. Gary Herbert, the Utah Division of Radiation Control and the state's Radiation Control Board.

The Utahns object to blending "when the intent is to alter the waste classification for the purposes of disposal site access." Five years ago, Utah banned "Class B and Class C" low-level radioactive waste.

"Such mixing could promote the goal of disposal of waste, rather than its storage on site, since Class A waste can be disposed of at a currently operating disposal facility," said the NRC staff in its proposal for the change. "The agency's previous policies and positions on blending of LLRW are evaluated in this paper in light of these new circumstances" of no disposal for B and C waste outside of Utah.

Christopher Thomas, policy director for the group, the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, doubts the wisdom of the change. He called the potential of blended waste a states' rights issue.
"A bunch of unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., are about to open the floodgates on hotter nuclear power plant waste coming to Utah," he said. "If they approve EnergySolutions' plan, the amount of radioactivity in the waste we receive every year will more than triple."

The NRC staff is expected to present its proposal at a meeting next Thursday at the NRC's headquarters in suburban Washington, D.C. Whether or not commission members agree to it will be decided in a vote, probably at a later date.
NRC staff has said it would be better for the agency to scrap its old system that frowns on waste blending and adopt a new one that focuses on the risks associated with high-concentrations of radioactivity and the ability of a site that might take blended waste to contain the hazards. It estimates it will take nearly a dozen full-time staff and more than $2.3 million to develop the new guidelines and regulations.

EnergySolutions has generally supported a new approach for blending. If NRC approves the change, the Utah company hopes to build a new plant in Tennessee to take resins from nuclear power plants that would otherwise be too radioactive for its Tooele County disposal site and blend them with less-hazardous resins so the final blend meets Utah's radiation limits.

"EnergySolutions believes that the NRC staff has done a thorough job of analyzing the issues related to blending in its paper," company spokesman Mark Walker said Wednesday.

"While we are not in complete agreement with all of the conclusions in the paper," he added, "we do not object to the recommendation of staff, which is to revise the NRC's blending positions to be risk-informed and performance-based" in a way that shows the health and safety of the public will be protected.

Much of the nuclear industry also has backed the change. The new approach to blending finally would secure disposal for the pileup of Class B and C waste that has been growing in the last two years since a South Carolina disposal facility closed to all but three states. The new blending policy also might cut companies' disposal costs significantly.

An NRC paper on the new approach cites industry estimates that blended waste could slash the volume of orphaned Class B and Class C waste by two-thirds, from 12,000 cubic feet a year to about 4,000 cubic feet.

Dane Finerfrock, Utah's top radiation regulator, resists the notion that the NRC staff has taken a position that contradicts the state's. He said there will be lots of discussion before any final policy is decided.

"Our position is clear," he said of the state's objection to blending to accommodate Class B and Class C waste that is outlawed in Utah.

"I don't know at the end if that difference is going to exist," he said. "I'm going to wait and see."

Studsvik Inc., a nuclear services company that also has processing facilities in Tennessee, competes with EnergySolutions and has objected to the new approach to blending.

"Studsvik believes it is important that the NRC recognizes that blended waste presents safety and environmental issues that are more challenging than" the types of waste permitted at EnergySolutions, said company counsel Joseph DiCamillo.
Like state regulators and other industry representatives, Studsvik and EnergySolutions are expected to be part of the discussions next week.

Find out more

To see the federal proposal on blending, visit the web site http://tinyurl.com/29ujaty.

The public meeting can be viewed via webcast at http://tinyurl.com/2e5rnm7.

Public comments will be taken on Utah's plans to develop a new site-assessment requirement for "unique waste" streams like blended waste through Friday.

More information is available at http://tinyurl.com/2dodony.