Dane L. Finerfrock
Division of Radiation Control
Department of Environmental Quality
168 North 1950 West
P.O. Box 144850
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4850

March 8, 2008

* Let Italy deal with its own N-waste, says Utah agency

March 3, 2008

This is from the front page of today's Deseret Morning News, of Salt Lake City, Utah.

See full text of this story.

February 2, 2008

This is from the front page of today's The Salt Lake Tribune, of Utah.

The Tribune's web site has full text of this article here.

January 11, 2008

Coal is king for Utah electricity

About 85 percent of electricity generated in Utah is derived from coal. Rocky Mountain Power plans to increase the proportion of energy it gets from noncarbon-emitting sources to 20 percent by 2025 -- specifically by increasing use of nuclear, geothermal and hydroelectric power. Utah Senate Majority Leader Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, plans to sponsor a bill supporting the company's goal in the upcoming legislative session, which begins Jan. 21. One of the company's goals is avoiding proscriptive state legislation imposing deadlines on reaching pollution reduction targets. "The legislation is meant to address policy objectives without forcing us to do things that are not economical for our customers," according to Rocky Mountain Power president Rich Walje. "We want policy direction, but we don't want to be told to do a certain thing at a certain time."

[Source: Standard-Examiner (Ogden UT), "Rocky Mountain Power proposes power legislation on pollution-reduction targets", January 11, 2008 4:25 am]

October 30, 2007

Utah Gov. Huntsman sees n-waste problem as reason to forego building any n-plant there

Last month, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said that no nuclear plant should be built in Utah until the plant could reprocess its waste on site.

"That's a deal-breaker," the governor said in an interview. During his monthly press conference in October on KUED Channel 7, he reiterated that the storage issue needs to be resolved before Utahns would feel comfortable with nuclear power.

[Source: Joe Bauman and Lisa Riley Roche, "Call for nuclear plants won't make much difference in Utah plans", Deseret Morning News, October 30, 2007]

February 27, 2007

Utah radiographer left camera in bed of pickup truck while he was in bar; NRC proposes $6500 fine

A radiographer should have locked his camera up before going into a bar on February 18, 2006. And when he was arrested that evening by Wyoming State Police at scene of traffic accident, his request that the truck be locked inside a garage at the impound yard, due to the presence of the radioactive source, showed NRC that his own failure to secure the source was a willful violation of NRC regulations. The company's corrective actions included taking disciplinary action against the radiographer, emphasizing to all employees the importance of proper transport and storage procedures, and conducting unannounced inspections of radiographers in the field. NRC sent a letter to the company (Universal Testing, LLC, of Clearfield Utah) discussing aspects of the violation and announcing the proposed fine. The letter, dated February 23, 2007, is available as ADAMS ACN ML070570080.

November 6, 2004

Utah appeal to US Supreme Court re blocking spent fuel from being brought into state

The Western Governors' Association has a policy that no radioactive waste facility should be allowed to locate in any state without the express permission of the governor and Legislature. That policy is Utah's law. Gov. Olene Walker and the Utah Legislature are opposed to high-level nuclear waste in Utah, as is Gov.-elect Jon Huntsman Jr. A week ago, the state petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal of a lower court decision that overruled state laws blocking the transportation of spent fuel into Utah.

[Source: Patty Henetz (The Salt Lake Tribune), "Officials in West scoff at PFS plan for nuclear waste transportation; Nuke waste transport plan gets panned", Salt Lake Tribune (Utah), November 6, 2004, p. A1]

March 18, 2004

Radwaste Task Force co-chair urged to resign

An editorial in today's Salt Lake Tribune calls for resignation of co-chairman of Utah state legislature's Hazardous and Radioactive Waste Task Force (Sen. Curtis Bramble, Provo), due to his apparant partiality towards Envirocare Bramble told attendees at a meeting in Toole that the acronym HEAL should stand for "Help Educate Anal Liberals." Two members of HEAL, whose actual name is Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, took offense and left the meeting. Their departure was accompanied by applause from supporters of Envirocare, which is a principal firm in the industry that the legislative task force is studying.

[Source: Salt Lake Tribune, editorial, A question of bias, March 18, 2004]

August 13, 2003

Utah hires Nevada's Yucca Mountain law firm to help look at Skull Valley aircraft crash issue

The State of Utah has hired the law firm Egan, Fitzpatrick and Malsch, of McLean, Virginia, to help evaluate the consequences of an airplane crash into a spent fuel storage cask or a proposed spent fuel storage facility at Skull Valley. The State of Nevada is delighted that the firm, which expects to do some $4-million in Yucca Mountain-related work this year, will be gaining expertise on this subject while being paid by somebody else. Bob Loux, director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, believes that this aircraft crash issue may eventually be front and center in the Yucca battle, just as it is currently seen as potential show-stopper at Skull Valley.

[Source: Steve Tetreault (Stephens Washington Bureau), "Firm fighting Yucca adds Utah as client; State opposes Goshute spent fuel complex", Las Vegas Review-Journal, August 13, 2003]

July 9, 2003