Op-ed: "Nations should act responsibly," (The Tennessean)

January 29, 2009, By Bart Gordon

In May 2008, the British Parliament debated a major energy bill that included measures to significantly expand the use of nuclear power.

During the debate, a member of the Parliament, Lord Patrick Jenkin, presented the idea that Britain could avoid the hassle of disposing of the low-level radioactive waste that would be generated by their 8-12 proposed new nuclear facilities by simply shipping the waste to the United States.

What Lord Jenkin said, frankly, did not surprise me. As things stand, the United States is the only country in the world that allows the importation and disposal within its borders of low-level radioactive waste produced by other countries.

Radioactive waste from several countries, including Germany, Mexico, Taiwan, and Britain, is currently buried in American soil. Recently, Italy has expressed interest in shipping 20,000 tons of its waste to be reprocessed in Oak Ridge and disposed of in Utah.

This practice must be stopped.

The fact is the United States has limited disposal capacity for low-level radioactive waste. There is only one commercial disposal site in the United States for this type of waste. Located in Clive, Utah, the site disposes of the low-level radioactive waste generated by 94 of the 104 American nuclear power plants. Low-level waste produced by American hospitals, universities, research institutions, and government facilities is also disposed at the Clive site.

There is a bigger principle, though, that lies at the heart of this issue.

The United States, and virtually every other developed country in the world, is currently trying to deal with the challenge of simultaneously meeting the demand for energy while fighting global warming. For this reason, until more sustainable and affordable alternatives are found, our country and many others have chosen to build more nuclear power plants.

However, in many countries, the principles of responsibility and ownership have not accompanied the construction of nuclear power plants. They have built nuclear facilities without constructing the necessary waste disposal sites.

If a country builds nuclear power plants, it also has a responsibility to build the waste disposal sites needed to handle the plants' waste. This is the message we should send to each and every country. We are simply failing to do so if we continue to allow foreign countries to dump their low-level radioactive waste on U.S. soil.

Sen. Lamar Alexander and I have been trying to send the right message since 2007. I recently re-introduced a bipartisan bill in the U.S. House that would prohibit the importation of low-level radioactive waste unless the president determines the importation would meet certain national and international policy goals. Sen. Alexander reintroduced the same bill in the U.S. Senate.

If this bill is signed into law, it will ensure that the U.S. does not become the international dumping ground for low-level radioactive waste.

U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon represents Tennessee's Congressional Sixth District in the House of Representatives, where he is the chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee.