SALT LAKE CITY -- Members of Congress will resubmit a bill Wednesday to ban the importation of foreign nuclear waste in an effort to preserve domestic disposal space as the U.S. increasingly looks toward expanding its use of nuclear power.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission hasn't approved the construction of a new nuclear power plant since the late 1970s, but it is reviewing applications to build 26 nuclear reactors at 17 different sites throughout the country.

On Tuesday, Nobel Prize-winning physicist and energy secretary nominee Steven Chu said in Washington that nuclear power should be a critical part of the nation's energy mix. The U.S. gets about 20 percent of its power from nuclear plants.

The bill banning foreign waste was spurred by an EnergySolutions Inc. application to import up to 20,000 tons of Italian nuclear waste through the ports of Charleston, S.C., or New Orleans for processing in Tennessee. After processing, about 1,600 tons would be disposed of in Utah.

The dump about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City is the country's largest and only privately owned low-level radioactive waste dump. It is also the only place 36 states can send their low-level radioactive waste.

The proposal to import the Italian waste has drawn opposition from residents who say they don't want the state to be an international dumping ground, while others worry the waste would pose a threat to states it passes through.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received a record number of comments on the import license application -- nearly all opposed to it.

Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman responded to the 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.

A message left with an EnergySolutions spokeswoman Tuesday was not immediately returned.

Last year, Reps. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., tried to make EnergySolutions' challenge moot by sponsoring a bill that would ban the importation of foreign waste unless it originated here or serves a strategic national interest.

However, some Republicans objected to their proposal on the grounds that it was harmful to the nuclear power industry and the bill stalled in committee.