Retired munitions won’t be buried in Utah’s West Desert anytime soon under a decision issued Thursday by state regulators, who rejected EnergySolutions’ emergency request to accept several thousand tons of armor-piercing projectile points made of heavier-than-lead depleted uranium.
The radioactive-waste processor had petitioned the Department of Environmental Quality for an exemption to Utah’s provisional prohibition on burying depleted uranium, or DU. But agency staff concluded metallic DU is more hazardous and unstable than how EnergySolutions had characterized it in its presentations.
The Waste Management and Radiation Control Board voted unanimously Thursday to reject the military ordinance, which grows more radioactive over time.