Wyoming Approves Nuclear Waste Disposal from Canada
Yesterday, Dec 19, 2025, the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Committee, of which Wyoming is a member, approved a resolution to their compact to allow the transportation and disposal of nuclear waste from Ontario, Canada to Clive, Utah.
This news was discovered yesterday by a loyal Wyomingite who shared the following article with us: Utah will store foreign radioactive waste for first time after Western states approve Canadian transport plan, The Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 19, 2025.
Why Wyoming
Wyoming is one of eight member states that make up the committee for the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management (NWIC). The other member states to this compact are Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, “At least two-thirds of the states in the compact needed to vote in favor of EnergySolutions’ request for it to proceed, and Utah had the ability to veto. Seven states voted to approve, while Washington’s representative abstained.”
The reason why this committee may sound unfamiliar to most Wyomingites, including legislators, is because it is an Interstate Compact that is represented by the WY Executive branch, rather than the WY Legislative branch. According to their website, Wyoming has one Governor appointed member on the NWIC: Brandi O’Brien, who is the Uranium Recovery Program Manager with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.
While it is a fact that Wyoming is a voting member of the NWIC Committee, you will not find any obvious acknowledgement or information whatsoever about the NWIC at the WY Governor’s website nor the WY Legislative website.
You will however find that we do have WY law, §9-6-206 to 210, for the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management. We also have WY law §9-6-101 to 105 for the Western Interstate Nuclear Compact. Those entities correlate with Wyoming law on NUCLEAR COOPERATION AND RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL.
Apparently around 1992 the WY Legislature approved Wyoming becoming a joiner state to the NWIC Compact. We will dig into this more to see what representatives initiated and approved this action over three decades ago.
History and Text of Northwest Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management
According to Ballotpedia:
The Northwest Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Compact is an interstate compact among Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The compact ensures multi-state cooperation regarding the proper management and disposal of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW). The compact also carries congressional consent.[1]
History
In the late 1970s, there were three LLRW disposal facilities in the United States. Governors in two of the host states, Nevada and Washington, temporarily closed their facilities to waste from other states, citing growing concerns that their states were disproportionately burdened with the nation’s waste.[2]
On the recommendation of the National Governors’ Association, Congress passed the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act in 1980, shifting the responsibility of waste disposal back to individual states. The goal was to spur the development of smaller, regional facilities, which is precisely what was achieved by the Northwest Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management and ten other regional waste disposal compacts.[2][3]
Text of the compact
The legislature of each member state passes the laws with certain modifications, but the core of the legislation remains the same.
Wyoming’s version is §9-6-206 to 210.
Info at Wyoming Nuclear Activity Website
When we initially created content for this site, we posted information on the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management (NWIC), the Western Interstate Nuclear Compact (WINC) as well as the High Level Radioactive Waste Committee (HLRWC), and the Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation (CREPC). The interface between Wyoming and those entities is the Council of State Governments (CSG). That content can be found at our CSG page.
In the future we intend to comment more on the NWIC approving the disposal of Canada’s nuclear waste within the United States. After all, if it can happen in Utah it can also happen in Wyoming. Apparently all it takes is a resolution written by unelected officials across eight states.
Meanwhile we provide the following *documents relevant to this issue:
NORTHWEST INTERSTATE COMPACT ON LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT (NWIC)
WY State Statutes on Nuclear Cooperation and Radioactive Waste Disposal (9-6-101 to 9-6-210)
1986 Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Public Law 99-240, U.S. Congress
2006 NWIC Resolution for Third Amendment to Compact
2008 NWIC Clarification of Resolution for Third Amendment to Compact
2025, Dec 19 NWIC Committee Member Meeting Packet
*These documents are also archived at our Resources page.
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