EnergySolutions (Envirocare) in Court Cases

April 2006 - The Department of Justice has approved the merger of EnergySolutions with Duratek. Early in April it was revealed that Duratek was one of the firms bidding for a federal grant to develop waste reprocessing technologies. EnergySolutions asserts that the site will not be in Utah, but has declined to name the proposed site.

Source: http://www.shundahai.org/Envirocare.htm

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court has overturned a portion of the state's initiative law, saying it gave rural residents a disproportionate voice in determining what measures go on the ballot.

The 3-2 ruling Aug. 26 ordered an initiative on radioactive waste be put on the November ballot. The initiative would increase taxes on radioactive waste shipped to the state and would bar waste of greater radioactivity than currently accepted. The initiative is opposed by Envirocare, which operates the state's only radioactive waste site and which contends the higher tax could put it out of business.

Source:  http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=16831

Absent specific statutory authority, however, a non-federal entity cannot enforce federal law. If NRC and DOE had entered into an enforcement contract with such a non-federal entity or group, the services it provided could not have included federal executive decisions -- such as the decision to bring legal or administrative enforcement actions -- in derogation of the Appointments Clause. In other words, neither DOE nor NRC could have delegated true enforcement authority. The kind of external regulation being proposed would have given the appearance of oversight without the reality of legal authority. The oversight body could only have been advisory; if it had detected violations of the law concerning radioactive waste, it would have had no legal recourse but to notify the NRC or DOE. Despite this obvious flaw, DOE concluded that it could create "alternative regulatory structures" such as the one WCS proposed. Id. at 9. Indeed, DOE still appears to be considering such a policy. Id. at 10. 

Source: http://www.senate.gov/comm/armed_services/general/statemnt/980903cj.htm

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals returned an anti-trust suit against Envirocare of Texas, sister company to waste giant Envirocare of Utah, back to state court for trial.

Source:    http://www.oaoa.com/news/nw012000d.htm

Envirocare of Utah, Inc., v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and United States of America

Source:  http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/federal/judicial/dc/opinions/98opinions/98-1426a.html

Court documents reveal that Envirocare owner (Khosrow Semnani), and the Director of the Utah Bureau of Radiation (Larry Anderson), were involved in a bribery/extortion scandal. Reports in the paper indicate that between !988 and 1992, Anderson helped Semnani to acquire cheap land and used his powers as director to endorse a dozen of regulatory exemptions to benefit the establishment of Envirocare.*

Source:  http://www.xmission.com/~lwvut/envirocare.html