Many Utahns have been following EnergySolutions' efforts to obtain a waiver in the state’s regulations that would allow the company to store hundreds thousands of pounds of “depleted uranium,” (DU), in its storage site in the desert west of Grantsville.
As a chemist, I oppose granting that waiver because my professional experience has made me aware of exactly what could happen with those rather exotic and unfamiliar chemicals. Even short-term storage can be dangerous, and assuring safe long-term storage is probably impossible.
To begin with, it’s unclear from most of the published information just what “depleted uranium” consists of.