Poll: Radioactive waste not welcome here

Utahns strongly support a federal ban on importing radioactive waste from foreign nations.

And, even more strongly, they oppose the disposal of thousands of tons of depleted uranium in their state.

Whether they were Republicans or Democrats, men or women, members of the LDS church or not -- the majority of registered voters who responded to a recent poll conducted for The Salt Lake Tribune objected to both proposals for low-level radioactive waste.

The question made Grantsville resident Anne Watson recall the story of scientist Marie Curie, who died from exposure to the radioactive material she studied.

"That's my concern," said Watson, the mother of four, grandmother of 12 and soon-to-be

great-grandmother of seven. "Is there going to be a day when we're going to be exposed to it? I don't know how secure it will be" for future generations.

Radioactive waste remains a hot-button issue for Utahns even though a specialized landfill in Tooele County has been in operation for 20 years and has for years been the nation's busiest burial ground for low-level waste.

Providing disposal primarily for waste from government cleanups and nuclear reactors, the site now operated by Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions Inc. has been the subject of an aggressive public relations campaign.

Company president Val Christensen said depleted uranium "becomes a non-issue" when Utahns understand the science behind it.

"We need to do a better job explaining the science behind the material we manage," he said.

"Our managing of DU poses no health or safety concern to the environment or citizens of Utah, now and in the future," he said. "We have safely managed Class A waste for nearly 20 years without a single health or safety issue."

Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling and Research surveyed 625 registered voters in Utah between Jan. 18 and Jan. 20.

Brad Coker, managing director for the firm, has previously conducted polls for newspapers in Nevada, where a government-owned low-level waste site is located and a national repository for underground disposal of high-level nuclear waste has been proposed for two decades.

Speaking of the recent Utah poll, he said: "There was nothing surprising in those results."

Scott Sharp, a contractor who lives in the canyons outside Salt Lake City, has no objections to depleted uranium or foreign waste as long as it can't seep into the water.

"It just doesn't bother me," he said. "It's just a godforsaken desert, and [the waste] has got to go somewhere."

Sterling Beck, an unemployed engineer from Genola, agreed there is no cause for concern about either radioactive waste proposal. He sees the controversy as little more than political fodder.

"No," he said, "I don't have strong feelings about this."

Congressmen Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, are cosponsors of legislation to ban most imports of radioactive waste. The House passed the bill two months ago, but companion legislation is being delayed in the Senate, in part because U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, opposes it.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, also supports the legislation and has gone to court to help another effort to block EnergySolutions from burying more foreign waste in the Utah disposal site. Herbert also has expressed concern about 11,000 tons of depleted uranium being added to the 49,000 already at the EnergySolutions site.

For Mary Thomson of Bountiful, a distrust of EnergySolutions drives her opposition to depleted uranium and foreign waste.

"We didn't make it," said the mother of a school-aged child. "We're not getting any benefit. I don't think the leaders [in Utah] are listening to the public, but they are listening to lobbyists."