Last month, we told you that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission claimed it doesn’t have jurisdiction to regulate nuclear materials being imported from other countries, because that would make their agency title far too literal to be a government entity. Well, that wasn’t the final say in the matter, as the issue had gone to court. But on Friday, federal judge Ted Stewart ruled that a private company in Utah cannot be prohibited from importing 1,600 tons of low-level radioactive waste, or LLRW.

The New York Times reports that while the judge ruling on the case believes that the multi-state compacts that regulate regional nuclear waste disposal do have some authority over what goes on in their jurisdictions, their power is not absolute.

“The Court … is troubled by the potential for abuse if private LLRW disposal facilities were to be left so completely at the whims of the compacts,” Stewart wrote. “Uncertainty thus created may be sufficient to deter private efforts to increase LLRW disposal capacity, and thereby frustrate, in part, the intent of the Acts.”

EnergySolutions, the private company in question, ultimately wants to import 20,000 tons of LLNW from Italy, processing most of it in Tennessee, and those aforementioned 1,600 tons going to Utah. However, this is not the end of the issue, by a long shot. Watch your back, EnergySolutions: the juggernaut that is Congress is getting involved.

Reps. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.) introduced H.R. 515 in January, which would only allow foreign radioactive waste to be imported if it is being returned to a U.S. government facility, originated in the United States, or is approved by the president to “meet an important national and international policy goal.” The bill has 79 co-sponsors, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) introduced a companion Senate measure, S.232.

That’s right. The big dogs are out. H.R. 515 and S.232. Awwwww yeeeaaah.

photo credit: tico24’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons