Deal breaker

EnergySolutions bought the naming rights to the local arena, endowed a chair at the state's largest university and cut a commercial that portrays the company as the greatest thing in waste disposal since the garbage can. It spent a bundle on public relations. Then it squandered every cent of goodwill by reneging on a deal not to expand its Utah landfill.

When former Gov. Jon Huntsman negotiated the agreement, and EnergySolutions agreed to the terms in March 2007, the end was supposedly in sight. When the company's disposal facility in Tooele County was full, Utah's tour of duty as the sole repository for low-level radioactive waste from 36 states would be over. No expansions.

But now, company officials say a federal court has set it free from the agreement that, according to Gov. Gary Herbert and state environmental regulators, is still binding.

Salt Lake City News, Feb. 5