(The following story by Judy Fahys appeared on The Salt Lake Tribune website on October 6, 2009.)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson is applauding reports that a South Carolina cleanup site is delaying its shipment of depleted uranium by at least two months.
On Tuesday, a Department of Energy official in South Carolina said 15,000 drums of depleted uranium (DU) from the Savannah River Cleanup site won’t start shipping to the EnergySolutions site in Utah until December.
Savannah River Site spokesman Jim Giusti told The Associated Press Tuesday that crews are preparing 11,000 tons of waste to load onto rail cars bound for the disposal facility 80 miles west of Salt Lake City through next summer.
The delay buys the Utah Democratic congressman time to try to persuade the U.S. Energy Department to suspend shipments until the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission completes its pending review of disposing depleted uranium (DU) safely.
The congressman noted scientists agree DU is a radioactive material that has the unusual characteristic of increasing in hazard over time and staying that way for a million years.
“It only makes sense that rules for its disposal take that into account,” said Matheson. “I will continue to press this with DOE.”
The NRC is in the midst of a study of DU that is expected to take at least three years. Analysts will consider whether large amounts of DU should be allowed in shallow burial at sites like the EnergySolutions Utah landfill over the long run and what measures might be needed to ensure it remains safe over time.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has expressed concern about the long-term hazards of DU. He is expected to meet Thursday with the environmental group, Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, to discuss the subject after rejecting its call for him to impose an immediate moratorium.
Next week, the state Radiation Control Board is slated to consider amending EnergySolutions’ license to beef up containment at the site for DU, such as deeper burial. EnergySolutions is limited to accepting waste no more hazardous than Class A, which is the category the NRC has designated for DU.
EnergySolutions already has accepted about 49,000 tons of DU, some of it from the Savannah River cleanup. The new shipments are part of a 700,000-ton government stockpile of depleted uranium. Another 700,000 tons is expected to be produced by new enrichment facilities coming online.