Posted: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 3:35 pm

WASHINGTON – Tomorrow (Nov. 19), the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee will consider Congressman Bart Gordon’s bill concerning foreign radioactive waste. Gordon’s bipartisan legislation, the Radioactive Import Deterrence (RID) Act, H.R. 515, would prevent foreign-generated radioactive waste from being processed in Tennessee and disposed in the U.S.

The full committee markup of the RID Act will begin at 8:30 a.m. CST. A live webcast can be viewed on the E&C’s website when the hearing begins http://energycommerce.house.gov/.

Tomorrow’s markup comes after the E&C’s Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment held a legislative hearing on October 16 and passed the RID Act on November 3.

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Background:

The United States is the only country in the world that imports radioactive waste of other countries for disposal. Currently, a permit is pending with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to import 20,000 tons of Italian low-level radioactive waste for disposal in the United States, which would be the largest importation ever of foreign-generated radioactive waste. If approved, the 20,000 tons of nuclear waste would be transported to Tennessee for processing and later disposed in Utah.

With limited space in the U.S. for radioactive waste, American industries could soon find themselves without adequate space to dispose domestically-produced waste if importations like this one continue.

Gordon’s legislation, the RID Act, would ban the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from authorizing the importation of foreign-generated low-level radioactive waste for disposal in the U.S. unless the President deems the importation would meet critical national or international policy goals.