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By Dan McCue - Staff Writer

A proposal to ship as much as 20,000 tons of nuclear waste from Italy through the Port of Charleston and Port of New Orleans for eventual disposal in Utah is raising questions among members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee.

According to a September application filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions wants to transport the hazardous cargo through Charleston and New Orleans, then take it by barge, truck or rail to a processing facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

The company also has offices and several facilities in Aiken, Barnwell, Columbia and Greenville, although none of these locations was mentioned as being involved in the effort detailed in the company’s application.

Starting next summer, the Barnwell LLRW Disposal facility—one of three in the nation that accepts low-level radioactive waste—will accept material from three states: South Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Under the plan outlined in EnergySolutions’ s application, material processed in Tennessee would be sent on to a disposal facility in Clive, Utah. However, material deemed too dangerous to be accepted at the waste facility would be sent back to Italy the same way it came into the country— through Charleston and New Orleans.

EnergySolutions said if its application is approved, it expects the imported waste to begin arriving in spring 2008. Shipments of the material would continue for about five years.

SC State Ports Authority spokesman Byron Miller said the authority does not handle radioactive materials at any of its public terminals. That suggests, he said, that if the application were approved, the material would either have to be transported through federal facilities, like the Naval Weapons Station in North Charleston, or through private terminals.

In their letter to the NRC, Texas Rep. Joe Barton, the top Republican on the House energy committee, and Kentucky Rep. Ed Whitfield, the leading Republican on the panel’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, said they found it troubling that EnergySolutions can’t determine whether any of the waste material is too dangerous for a low-level waste facility until processing takes place in Tennessee.

They said this could mean that the “radioactive composition of some of the waste arriving” through the ports will exceed the commission’s limits for low-waste disposal.

The legislators also questioned whether the commission has ever allowed the importation of radioactive wastes “without a clear understanding of its exact type and composition” and whether a license has ever been granted for such activity with the understanding that “some of the wastes will be so dangerous they must be exported back to the country of origin.”

In a statement, EnergySolutions said many companies import waste through U.S. ports and that it’s a world leader in the safe handling and disposal of radioactive materials.

David McIntyre, a spokesman for the nuclear regulatory agency, said the agency had yet to respond to the lawmakers’ letter. He also said that the agency will soon begin taking public comments on EnergySolutions’ application. The permit process typically takes about six months, he said.