SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah Gov. Gary Herbert says two trainloads of depleted uranium from South Carolina won't come to Utah as originally planned.
Herbert said in a statement Monday that he has reached an oral agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy to keep the Savannah River Site waste from being disposed at EnergySolutions Inc.'s facility in Utah's west desert.
Depleted uranium is different from other low-level radioactive waste disposed of in Utah because it becomes hotter over time, for up to 1 million years.
State regulators and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are currently developing new guidelines on how to safely dispose of the material.
An Energy Department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an e-mail from The Associated Press on Monday.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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