Sen Bennett sides with Gov Walker on (nuclear) waste | SL Tribune

Bennett sides with Walker on waste

By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune

U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett said Monday he was aligned with Gov. Olene Walker in opposing the disposal of "hotter" nuclear waste in Utah.

The Utah Republican said news reports had left a misimpression that the two are "on different sides" of a growing controversy over whether cleanup waste from Ohio and New York should be allowed to go a Tooele County landfill.

"I am very comfortable we are on the same page," Bennett said in a Salt Lake Tribune editorial board meeting. "I didn't come out and say it in exactly those words, but that's where I am and that's where I want you to put me down."

Bennett has stressed the importance of disposing of radioactive waste safely, and in recent years pushed for federal regulatory changes that would allow more radioactive waste to be disposed of at Envirocare of Utah, a privately owned landfill in Tooele County.

More at the Salt Lake Tribune