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Truth short-lived at EnergySolutions

Truth short-lived at EnergySolutions

Deseret News By Vanessa Pierce   March 10, 2009 If truth were a type of nuclear waste, it might have a very short half-life. At times, anyway, it seems to decay faster in the hands of Energy-Solutions.

Take, for instance, the proclamation CEO Steve Creamer made to this newspaper in 2005 when asked what he would ask in return for giving up his company’s push to bring hotter classes of waste to Utah: “Not a thing. . . . We’re not going to be back asking for anything else. We’re happy.”

Two weeks later, the company quietly announced plans to double the size of its commercial radioactive waste dump—already the country’s largest. How long did it take for truth to decay in that instance? Two weeks.

Sometimes the truth at Energy?Solutions takes a little longer to decay. The company now wants to bring the world’s nuclear waste to Utah. But eight years ago, the state of Utah was given the company’s promise by then-Vice President Ken Alkema “that it will not take out-of-country wastes.” Not only has the company reneged on that commitment, apparently, it reneged on its word that same year.

Company spokeswoman Jill Sigal announced last week on RadioWest that EnergySolutions has been accepting “internationally generated material at Clive for over eight years.”

Do the math and you realize that EnergySolutions has been accepting foreign waste since 2001 — the same year the company informed the state that it would not be accepting such waste streams.

But even though it can be hard to determine how long the truth will last at EnergySolutions, we’re now being asked to take the company’s word that foreign nuclear waste is harmless, will take up the tiniest portion of its dump site and bring us billions.

Deseret News | Truth short-lived at EnergySolutions

March 11, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA