Matheson: NRC Filing Deadline Not the End of Foreign Nuke Waste Fight

Washington, D.C.—Congressman Jim Matheson said Tuesday’s deadline to submit public comments to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on an application for a license to import Italian radioactive waste will not resolve the issue.  Matheson has introduced bipartisan legislation (HR 5632) to ban the importation of foreign waste, which was the subject of a committee hearing last month.

“Witnesses at the hearing, including someone from the NRC, engaged in some finger-pointing, validating the need for my bill,” said Matheson.  “The NRC testified it doesn’t have authority to halt foreign waste shipments, the state of Utah testified that it doesn’t have authority and a pending lawsuit is challenging the Northwest Interstate Compact on Radioactive Waste Management’s vote against taking the waste. At this point, who is in charge?”

Matheson said as of June 5, the NRC has received over 2,500 written comments from the public—the majority of which oppose the import license application. According to NRC regulations, the company that has applied for the import license will be provided with a copy of the comments and given a reasonable opportunity to respond.  Matheson said the timing of a final Commission decision depends on several factors, so it is difficult to estimate when a final NRC decision will be issued, but it would be September at the earliest.

“We have increasing demand for low level radioactive waste storage and shrinking space.  No one is clearly in charge of whether or not we should be taking foreign radioactive waste.  I see no good reason, as public policy, to allow other countries to unload their waste on the U.S. and Utah.  I’ll continue to push strongly for enactment of my legislation,” said Matheson.

Matheson said recent news reports about British interest indicate that the importation of 20,000 tons of radioactive waste from Italy may be “just the tip of the iceberg.”

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