A House panel has voted to block the importation of foreign nuclear waste into the United States in response to a Salt Lake City company's plan to bury low-level radioactive waste from Italy in Utah.

The Energy and Commerce Committee's energy subcommittee on Tuesday approved by a voice vote a bill sponsored by Reps. Jim Matheson, D-Utah; Bart Gordon, D-Tenn.; and Lee Terry, R-Neb. to prohibit the importation of low-level radioactive waste.

At issue is 20,000 tons of waste from Italy. EnergySolutions Inc. wants to process it in Tennessee and then dispose the remaining 1,600 tons at its facility about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City.

A companion version of the bill has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.