Nuclear waste storage a slam dunk for Utah

No one likes garbage, unless your name is Oscar. If the garbage truck didn’t come every week, we’d be swimming in a pool of disease and filth. Some items are harder than others to dispose of, such as glow-in-the-dark watches, smoke detectors, wiping rags, mops and injection needles. These items earn the special designation of low-level waste and typically need to be disposed of at a specialty site approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Enter EnergySolutions, which specializes in the disposal of class A material—the lowest category of nuclear waste. If you’ve been to a Jazz game, you know the old Delta Center has been changed and renamed by the Larry H. Miller Group as EnergySolutions.

Earlier this month, the state continued its stalemate of prohibiting EnergySolutions from importing low-level waste from Italy. Wanting to build a track record and expand its business into international markets, EnergySolutions wants to bring 1,600 tons of foreign nuclear waste to dispose in Utah. A federal judge has ruled that the foreign nuclear waste can come to the state. However, Utah is appealing the ruling. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, millions of tons of radioactive waste needs to be disposed of every year. The federal government relies on three facilities to complete this job. The Italian waste deal represents a miniscule part of this task, less than 1 percent.

“This is nothing new,” EnergySolutions said in a statement. “We made a proposal at the beginning of the year that we discussed in television ads as well as with government and community leaders. We believe that it is in the best interest of the state, the citizens of Utah and EnergySolutions to settle this matter and we hope the state considers this proposal.”

The company said it is offering Utah 50 percent of its net revenues from the disposal of foreign nuclear waste if it agrees to let the waste in the state. This means the state is expected to get $100 million a year for 10 years, just for signing a contract to let a company do what it’s in business to do.

According to the governor’s office, the state’s $3 billion budget for education was cut by 6 percent this year because of a bad economy. With the EnergySolutions proposal to split revenues, a third of the mandatory budget cut on education would be reconciled. EnergySolutions projects revenues for this project would be about $200 million a year for 10 years and the state would be given half those revenues should it allow the transaction to take place.

This should be a no-brainer, slam-dunk decision to proceed and the state should stop dragging its feet in this political tap dance. Unfortunately, the business issue has been intercepted by environmental lobbyist groups and politicians prohibiting a relatively small transaction that will propel a Utah company into an international business. The state needs to give up on playing politics and let a tax-paying, revenue-sharing company move forward with its business operations.

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/opinion/nuclear-waste-storage-a-slam-dunk-for-utah-1.1881852