nuclear-news

Utah site might not be safe for depleted uranium wastes

Radioactive waste shipments to Utah site facing year delay   State board agrees extra steps must be taken to ensure safety of shipment .By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune  10/14/2009 Drums of radioactive cleanup waste in South Carolina are ready for loading onto rail cars for the journey to a Tooele County disposal site. But now those plans could be delayed more than a year, after the state Radiation Control Board voted Tuesday to allow more depleted uranium (DU) only after EnergySolutions Inc. submits a report confirming its extra steps to safeguard the waste will work.The move was a victory for the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL) which has sought at least a temporary moratorium on DU, as the uranium-enrichment waste is called………………..
While DU falls under the national rating system as Class A, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced in March it would determine whether shallow landfills like EnergySolutions’ can contain DU safely.

DU has the unusual quality of becoming more hazardous over time. The NRC expects it will take about four years to answer that question.

Radioactive waste shipments to Utah site facing year delay – Salt Lake Tribune

October 17, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium, wastes