Gordon’s Nuclear Waste Bill Gets Congressional Hearing
May 20, 2008, WASHINGTON – Legislation U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon introduced to prohibit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from authorizing imports of foreign-generated radioactive waste was the subject of a congressional hearing today.
Gordon said he introduced his bill, H.R. 5632, after learning a private company had applied for a license to import 20,000 tons of radioactive waste from decommissioned nuclear reactors in Italy, process and incinerate much of it in Tennessee and dispose of the remainder in Utah.
“I was shocked to learn that the United States is the only country in the world that accepts and disposes other countries’ radioactive waste,” said Gordon. “Radioactive waste must be monitored for hundreds of years, so why in the world should we use our own valuable disposal space and accept the responsibility of monitoring foreign waste for generations to come?”
Gordon’s legislation would ban foreign waste imports unless the president determines a specific request is necessary to meet national or international policy goals, such as research.
Representatives of the NRC, Government Accountability Office, the Utah Radiation Control Board and EnergySolutions, the company that applied for an import license last fall, testified at the hearing of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality.
The application has been met with opposition by Gordon and other members of Congress, the governors of Utah and Wyoming, the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-level Radioactive Waste Management and environmental groups.
EnergySolutions has argued that the NRC should be trusted to make decisions on import applications, but Margaret Doane, director of the NRC’s Office of International Programs, told the panel the NRC has no power to make policy decisions about foreign waste imports. Instead, the NRC can only consider the technical aspects of an application.
“The pure policy question of whether as a general matter foreign waste should be permitted to take up space in U.S. disposal facilities is a foreign commerce issue which is best addressed by Congress in conjunction with the Departments of State and Energy,” said Doane.
Gordon said the testimony from the experts reinforced the need for a national policy regarding nuclear waste imports.
“Nuclear waste management is a national issue, and we need a national policy against importing foreign waste,” said Gordon. “I don’t want to see the United States become the world’s nuclear garbage dump. Congress needs to act to stop it, and my bill will help us do just that.”
The NRC is accepting public comments on the application through June 10. Comments can be sent by e-mail to hearingdocket@nrc.gov or by postal mail to Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications. All correspondence should reference EnergySolutions Import License Application IW023.
