Matheson Says Policy on taking Foreign Nuclear Waste is up to Congress

Oct. 16, 2009

Salt Lake City - Congressman Jim Matheson said witnesses at Friday’s committee hearing on his bipartisan bill to ban foreign nuclear waste confirmed that Congress needs to clarify whether the U.S. wants to become the world’s nuclear garbage dump. Matheson is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Energy and Environment subcommittee which held the hearing.

“The 1980 federal law which set up disposal of radioactive waste by the states never anticipated that foreign countries would send their waste here for permanent disposal. The whole system is designed for the domestic needs of our country’s nuclear industry. Let Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Great Britain, and other countries handle their own radioactive waste,” said Matheson.

“There is limited capacity for low level radioactive waste in this country. Domestic nuclear power is going to be a critical part of our energy future as we address carbon emission issues. Why would we want to use up some of our domestic disposal capacity with foreign waste?” said Matheson.

Matheson’s bipartisan bill – The Radioactive Import Deterrence (RID) Act—HR 515—is a response to a license application from a Utah company to import 20,000 tons of low level radioactive waste from Italy for processing in Tennessee, with 1,600 tons slated for permanent storage at the company’s facility in Utah’s west desert. The RID Act would ban the importation of foreign radioactive waste with narrow exceptions involving defense or national security needs. A witness from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) confirmed at today’s hearing that there are also license applications from Brazil and Mexico to ship waste to the U.S. for disposal at the Clive, Utah facility.

“The hearing validated the need for my bill. The history of radioactive waste regulation never anticipated foreign waste coming to this country. Since no other country in the world takes another country’s low level radioactive waste, we should set U.S. policy so that the rest of the world doesn’t try to move all of its waste here,” said Matheson.

Recorded footage of the hearing is posted for download and/or viewing on the website of Congressman Bart Gordon (www.bart.house.gov)

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