SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A proposal to import nuclear waste from Italy for disposal in Utah drew nearly 4,000 public comments by the deadline Tuesday, signaling an unprecedented amount of opposition for an import license.

EnergySolutions Inc. wants to import 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste through the ports of Charleston, S.C., or New Orleans. If approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it would be the largest amount of nuclear waste ever allowed into the country.

After processing in Tennessee, about 1,600 tons would be shipped to Utah, home of the country's largest and only privately owned low-level radioactive waste dump.

Gov. Jon Huntsman responded to a public outcry against the proposal by using an interstate compact to block the waste from coming to Utah if EnergySolutions' application is approved. But EnergySolutions is challenging in federal court the state's authority to keep the waste out.

The NRC isn't expected to rule on the import license until September at the earliest, said spokesman Dave McIntyre.

The Utah Attorney General's Office filed a request Tuesday for a public hearing before the NRC makes a decision.

Utah wants to tell the NRC to conduct an environmental assessment, evaluate the risks to health and safety, and recognize there is no place to send the waste because the Northwest Interstate Compact has declared it's not allowed here, Assistant Attorney General Denise Chancellor said.

Opponents say the waste shouldn't be allowed into the country because the U.S. needs EnergySolutions' dump for its own waste.

The company accepts about 98 percent of the nation's low-level radioactive waste. In July, a site in South Carolina that takes some low-level radioactive waste will close its doors to all waste that doesn't originate there, New Jersey or Connecticut.

EnergySolutions has said it has plenty of capacity at its site for the Italian waste and that it would pledge to cap the amount of foreign waste accepted at the site to 5 percent of all capacity.

The company says if its site took all of the low-level radioactive material from the decommissioning of all 104 U.S. reactors, it would still have nearly 50 million cubic feet of unused capacity. It also says the Italian waste would represent less than 1 percent of the waste it accepts annually.

It's a pledge that means little to the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, an opponent of the plan that submitted 1,300 comments in opposition to importing the waste. The group contends if any foreign waste is allowed, the company will ask for more in the future. EnergySolutions has publicly said it intends to seek more foreign business and that its Utah disposal site is one of its competitive strengths.

"It's clear that if this Italian waste proposal is granted, it will set a dangerous precedent for Utah and the United States to become the world's nuclear waste dumping ground," said John Urgo, alliance outreach director. "We should not open the door even a crack to foreign nuclear waste being disposed here."

Some members of Congress are hoping to pass a law that would close American borders to nuclear waste unless it originated here or came from an overseas military facility.

"We know there are going to be more nuclear plants in this country," said Alyson Heyrend, spokeswoman for bill sponsor, U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. "Shouldn't we take care of those disposal needs before we invite the disposal from other foreign countries to use our limited space? It's about priorities."

While Matheson's bill has had one congressional hearing, it's yet to come up for a committee vote.

On the Net:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission www.nrc.gov

EnergySolutions www.energysolutions.com

HEAL Utah www.healutah.org