MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- For the first time since their controversial business began making news, Tennessee's nuclear processors are speaking up and hoping to salvage a cheaper waste disposal route through ordinary landfills like the one in Murfreesboro.

Video:Residents Look To End Radioactive Dumping At Landfill

They said it's a small but vital part of their business. However, a growing number of citizens want to see it go.

Thursday marked the final public meeting but the first public appearance of some key players in the radioactive waste business.

At the meeting, the state commission investigating disposal at Middlepoint landfill in Rutherford County heard from at least two companies that treat and process radioactive rubble about mistakes.

Somebody stole something radioactive but valuable for recycling.

"The material was high-value metal, and an employee of a company that transported that material for us took it to a scrap metal and set off a radiation alarm," said Troy Eshleman of Energy Solutions.

Also, a load of material went out to a Memphis landfill with radioactivity higher than it should have been.

"We did have some material with one specific isotope that went to the disposable facility that was greater than the limit. We reported that immediately to the Department of Radiological Health," said Gerald Webb of Studsvik.

The companies said the bulk survey business under scrutiny is not a big money maker and is just a fraction of their overall business.

But it is apparently a business which they need to keep.

The giant in the field, Energy Solutions, has a virtual monopoly on all radioactive waste disposals but has no option for the lowest-level material besides Tennessee.

While the commission gathers facts, citizens have been gathering signatures. They said they have up to 5,000 names on a petition to stop the dumping for good at the landfill.

The mayor of Rutherford County said a thorough review through years of county minutes and memoranda shows no one ever knew about what was happening at the local landfill.

"There is absolutely no mention of the terminology of BSFR (Bulk Survey For Release) in any of the documentation that I've been able to review," said Rutherford County Mayor Ernest Burgess.

The committee has until early September to recommend whether to lift or extend the Legislature's moratorium on radioactive dumping.