NRC balks at calling depleted uranium higher-risk

The Salt Lake Tribune By Brock Vergakis

The Associated Press

Updated: 04/13/2009 02:49:10 PM MDT

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says classifying large amounts of depleted uranium as a hotter type of low-level radioactive waste without further study would not provide additional protections to public health, safety or the environment.

The NRC’s comments come in an April 9 letter to Reps. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Edward Markey, D-Mass. The congressmen have questioned the NRC’s March decision to regulate large quantities of depleted uranium as the least hazardous kind of low-level radioactive waste, known as Class A waste.

Depleted uranium is different from other waste because it becomes more radioactive over time.

The NRC decision could result in more than 1 million tons of depleted uranium being disposed of in Clive, Utah and Andrews County, Texas. Matheson and Markey have called the ruling an “arbitrary and capricious mischaracterization” of the waste.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12132714