nuclear-news

SALT LAKE CITY (Map, News) – Nuclear waste that’s been buried in Utah’s west desert for several years likely includes some material that’s not allowed under state law, according to an environmental group’s report released Wednesday.The U.S. Department of Energy has been disposing of depleted uranium from a nuclear weapons complex near Aiken, S.C., since 2003 at EnergySolutions Inc.’s facility about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City. It also has disposed of some material at the Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles north of Las Vegas.

The report commissioned by Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah says that out of the original 33,000 drums from the Savannah River Site, as many as 5,600 could include material that violates state standards for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste.

That’s because the material includes radionuclide technetium-99, a man-made product that results from the fissioning of nuclear fuel in a reactor to make plutonium for nuclear weapons. State law only allows for certain levels of the material to be disposed of in Utah……

More than 10,000 drums of depleted uranium from the South Carolina facility has already been disposed of in Utah, according to the DOE. Dane Finerfrock, director of the Utah Division of Radiation Control, said he was unaware so much depleted uranium was already in his state…..

More than 5,000 drums from the Savannah River Site are in Utah awaiting disposal, and the DOE has planned on disposing nearly 10,000 more drums, too.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said he struck an oral agreement last week with the Energy Department to keep the other 10,000 drums out of the state, but his spokeswoman said Wednesday the state hasn’t yet submitted a written version for the DOE to approve.