Gordon questions reveal no Italian nuke contract on The Murfreesboro Post

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Gordon questions reveal no Italian nuke contract

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Posted: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 11:30 am

WASHINGTON – As a result of Congressman Bart Gordon’s recent questions to Utah-based EnergySolutions, the company has now submitted a formal “clarification” to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission affirming that they did not have signed contracts to dispose of Italian radioactive waste in the United States, as they had previously indicated.

EnergySolutions has a license application pending with NRC to import 20,000 tons of Italian low-level radioactive waste for disposal in the U.S., which would be the largest importation ever of foreign-generated radioactive waste. If the license is granted, the nuclear waste shipments would be transported to Tennessee for processing and later disposed of in Utah. Gordon has been leading the fight against this proposal and is the author of bipartisan legislation to ban the importation of foreign-generated waste for disposal in the U.S.

“We’re the only country in the world that disposes of radioactive waste generated by other countries,” added Gordon. “It’s time to put an end to this practice and preserve our limited disposal space for the American medical facilities, research labs and utility companies that produce this kind of waste.”

At an October 16 legislative hearing on Gordon’s bill, titled the Radioactive Import Deterrence Act, EnergySolutions President Val Christensen’s answers to questions posed by Gordon revealed that the company had not portrayed its business situation with Italy accurately. In a June 2009 letter to the NRC, EnergySolutions claimed that if a license was not granted to import the Italian waste, it “would cause EnergySolutions substantial economic harm because it is unable to perform work under its contracts for this waste.”

Gordon said that the timeline did not make sense.

“Last year, in sworn testimony at a congressional hearing, EnergySolutions stated that it didn’t have a formal contract with Italy,” said Gordon. “It wouldn’t make sense for them to then turn around and sign a legally binding contract, as EnergySolutions alleged in its June 2009 filing, while a court case and federal legislation were pending that questioned EnergySolutions’ ability to move forward with the Italian deal.”

At the October hearing, Christensen acknowledged that his company did not have any such contracts and the filing should have said “memorandum of understanding,” which is not a legally binding contract. EnergySolutions has since clarified its business situation to the NRC.

Tagged under Gordon, nuclear waste, Rep. Gordon

Member Opinions:

By: Farmall on 10/27/09
I hope BFI blasts Gordon out of the state for his meddling. BFI was doing business and making their stockholders money. I guess Gordon thinks capitalism is evil or something. This was very low level radiation no different than our local hospital disposes of.

By: les6216 on 10/27/09
I don't know many Rutherford County residents who want foreign countries dumping their radioactive waste here.If it's so "low-level & innocuous" then why don't they dump it in their own country? If our local hospital has to dump their waste here, then I guess that has to happen--unless we can find a country who will take it on the cheap!

By: canalou on 10/29/09
Thanks Bart, for trying to protect us....from greed and nuclear waste....