Utah House tells feds to end emissions moves

The Associated Press

The Utah House has passed a resolution questioning the science behind global warming and calling for federal officials to stop policies aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

U.S. Federal Appeals court to decide foreign nuclear waste dumped in Utah

DENVER, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court held arguments this week on whether Utah can ban foreign nuclear waste from a disposal site in the state...

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/01/16/Appeals-court-to-decide-nuclear-waste-case/UPI-26941263623073/

Salt Lake Tribune | Shallow landfills of depleted uranium - could spread long-lived radioactive material throughout the Great Salt Lake Basin

11/07/2009 11:38:43 PM MST - Three scientists say federal nuclear regulators owe Utahns an apology -- and a policy change -- for allowing shallow burial of depleted uranium, including the 49,000 tons already at EnergySolutions Inc.'s landfill in Tooele County.

Geologist Stephen T. Nelson and climatologist Summer B. Rupper, both of Brigham Young University, and Kansas State University geologist Charles G. Oviatt, say it is "absurd" for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deem depleted uranium safe for surface disposal.

The uranium enrichment waste gets increasingly hazardous for a million years, and that's too long to reasonably ensure the safety of any shallow landfills, especially one like the Tooele County site that is underwater a few hundred of every several thousand years. Those wet cycles could spread long-lived radioactive material throughout the Great Salt Lake basin, the scientists say.

The criticism comes in a letter to the regulators, who are fielding public input on whether large amounts of DU can be safely disposed at sites like EnergySolutions'.

NRC spokesman David McIntyre said his agency will consider the scientists' comments as part of its in-depth review. But, he added, the agency won't approve any more DU disposal in Utah "if we don't think it's safe."

The company said it's looking at the impacts of rising lake levels on the landfill cover, erosion potential and leaching. FULL STORY

Salt Lake City Tribune | Utah, who's got your back? It is time to talk about depleted uranium.

10/02/2009 06:47:14 PM MDT - The Radiation Control Board, the folks who are supposed to look out for you, cleared the way in an 8-3 vote last week for EnergySolutions to bring 14,000 tons of the stuff to Utah beginning a few weeks from now.

So, what's DU? What's the big deal? Well, if you are only concerned about the next few hundred years, it may not be anything to worry about. However, if you are concerned about longer times, it is a very big deal indeed.

Contrary to intuition, DU becomes much more radioactive over a long time. In fact, DU buried in Utah today will eventually become somewhere between 10 to 15 times more radioactive.

There is also a lot of it. The amount of material eventually requiring disposal may exceed 1 million tons. The half-life of DU is about the same as the age of the Earth, or 4.5 billion years. In a nutshell, DU represents a massive quantity of radioactive material in a highly concentrated form. It becomes increasingly radioactive and then stays that way forever.

Much of it could end up at the EnergySolutions facility in the west desert. That facility really isn't a bad place for "normal" waste that largely decays away in a few centuries. Ironically, the company builds its landfill liners from local Lake Bonneville clay that was deposited 15,000 years ago and is direct evidence that this site has been under water in the past.

Full Story

AP | Utah OKs continued disposal of depleted uranium

SUUjournal.com | Editorial: Utah is not the world's waste dump

In addition to the foreign waste, domestic depleted uranium will begin to flow into our state in October and will be stored at the EnergySolutions site 70 ...