The NRC Says it Can't Prohibit Foreign Waste

Date: April 14, 2009

Source: News Room

In response to Congressional inquiry regarding EnergySolutions plan to import up to 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste from Italy's shuttered nuclear-power program, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it lacks the authority to prevent waste from being imported into the United States. According to the Associated Press, the NRC wrote to Reps. Jim Matheson (D-UT) and Bart Gordon (D-TN) that the Atomic Energy Act does not distinguish between domestic and foreign waste, provided that it is handled safely and that there is a willing recipient. The two are sponsoring a bill that would ban the import of foreign radioactive waste unless it originated in this country or was needed for a strategic national purpose.

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