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Utah Exploring Potential Nuclear Waste Site

State regulators next month will rev-up a stagnant review of a Utah company's push to bury in the state's west desert a type of radioactive waste that becomes more radioactive for 2 million years.

The seven-year effort from Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions has been stalled amid environmental reviews and questions about whether the waste, known as depleted uranium, belongs in Utah.

Department of Environmental Quality project manager Helge Gabert says the state's latest review of the project was put on a backburner this year as the agency focused its limited staff on other projects, but they're planning to make it a higher priority starting Jan. 1.

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Gabert says the change is based on the agency's workload and they hope to make enough progress in 2017 to allow public comment in late summer.