Friday is the final day for public comment on the decision to allow EnergySolutions to dump blended nuclear waste in Utah. HEAL Utah held a news conference on Thursday to showcase the public's opposition to that decision.
HEAL Utah is calling for the prevention of higher-level nuclear waste coming to Utah and says EnergySolutions has found a loophole in the current state law that allows blended nuclear waste to enter the state.
"Blended nuclear waste is a brand new waste processing scheme that EnergySolutions devised for the purpose of getting around our ban on hotter-class waste," said Christopher Thomas with HEAL Utah. "The way blended waste works is you take that waste that would be banned that could not come directly to Utah and mix it up with less contaminated material, less radioactive material and other reagents and chemicals and process it so it slides under the limits and be allowed access to Utah."
Friday is the last day for the public to comment on the government's allowance of blended nuclear waste to come to Utah and be stored in the West Desert. HEAL Utah says it would quadruple the amount of nuclear waste in Utah and cement the state as the nation's dumping spot for nuclear waste.
The organization encourages residents to talk to their local lawmakers about the issue or go to healutah.org for more information.
