The battle over where to put foreign radioactive waste is getting hotter in Utah, where Rep. Jim Matheson has sent a letter to Gov. Gary Herbert calling Energy Solutions Inc.’s offer to share its profits with the state nothing short of “influence peddling,” according to a report by Matt Canham and Thomas Burr of the Salt Lake Tribune.
The Salt Lake City-based nuclear services company has proposed a deal that could net the state $3 billion over a decade, and Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack, mindful the state’s budget is $700 million short, said the offer should be reconsidered.
“It’s a horrible idea to consider opening up Utah to the entire world’s radioactive garbage in exchange for a share of what the company says are the profits,” Matheson said in the Tribune story. “No other country on Earth takes another country’s nuclear waste and I am determined that the U.S. won’t be the exception.”
The latest salvo against the proposal follows a federal court ruling earlier this month that limits states’ rights to restrict radioactive waste going to their disposal facilities.
