US Congress should decide on nuclear waste imports

Witnesses have told a House committee it is up to Congress to stop other countries from shipping their radioactive waste to the United States.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission official Margaret Doane told lawmakers Friday the agency has no choice but to permit private companies to import waste, so long as they meet safety and security standards and there is an appropriate place to put it.

At issue is 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste from Italy's nuclear reactor cleanups that a U.S. company wants to process in state of Tennessee and then bury in the state of Utah.

It is the most waste the NRC has ever been asked to allow into the U.S. Doane said there are also applications to import waste from Brazil and Mexico for disposal in Utah.