Updated: 11/19/2009 3:41:42 PM
By Bill Theobald, Gannett Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Legislation co-authored by Rep. Bart Gordon to ban importation of low-level nuclear waste was approved by a House committee Thursday.
Gordon introduced the bill after EnergySolutions applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to import 20,000 tons of radioactive waste from Italian nuclear facilities for processing at a company facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and storage at a company site in Utah.
Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the bill 34-12 on a mostly party-line vote, with Democrats voting yes and Republicans voting no. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Brentwood, the only other Tennessee member of the committee, voted against the bill.
Gordon, D-Murfreesboro, says that the ban is needed because the Clive, Utah, storage facility is the only one serving 37 states, and that putting foreign nuclear waste there could cause a storage problem for waste generated in the U.S.
"The U.S. is poised to become a global dumping ground," Gordon said.
Opponents of the bill say it's unnecessary because federal agencies don't foresee running out of storage space for low-level nuclear waste in the near future. Blackburn is confident that the foreign waste would have a minimal impact and that processing the material would create jobs in Tennessee, said her spokesman, Claude Chafin.
Another opponent, committee member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., contended that the legislation would create a trade barrier between the U.S. and Italy and discourage the development of more nuclear energy.
Republicans proposed an amendment that would allow importation of foreign nuclear waste as long as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined there was adequate disposal capacity. The committee rejected that proposal, with Gordon voting yes and Blackburn voting no.
Thursday's proceeding included a few moments of entertaining theater when Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., broke into song just before the final vote to express his support for Gordon's bill.
Borrowing the tune of the Dean Martin classic "That's Amore," Markey sang, "When the trash piles high, reaches up to the sky, no amore!" In response, GOP committee members began howling like dogs baying at the moon.
The legislation is now eligible for consideration by the entire House. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate by Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander but no action has been taken on it so far.
