Radiation board holds hearing on Goshute storage proposal

     Associated Press
      SALT LAKE CITY -- A member of a tiny Indian band in western Utah urged the state in an emotional plea on Friday to oppose a plan that would make her reservation the first in the nation to build a nuclear waste dump.
      Margene Bullcreek told members of the state Radiation Control Board that the risk of a nuclear disaster outweighs the revenue the project would generate.
      "We've been told at our meetings that nuclear waste is safe. But what's going to happen when the nuclear waste leaks out and there is radiation? I don't think money will ever be enough to pay back the lives in case anything happens," Bullcreek said at a public hearing.
      The Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indian Tribe has agreed to let out-of-state utility companies temporarily store spent nuclear-reactor fuel on its reservation in Tooele County. The site, west of the Oquirrh Mountains, is about 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
      The operation would be lucrative, generating perhaps tens of millions of dollars a year for the small Goshute band, which has about 70 registered members.
      The radiation board put off a decision on the matter last month, saying it first wanted to gather public input.
      Bullcreek, who described herself as a "traditionalist" concerned about the environment, was joined by politicians, environmentalists and military watchdog groups in speaking out against the plan.
      Gov. Mike Leavitt also has vowed to fight it.
      Supporters argue that as a sovereign nation the tribe doesn't need state approval for the dump and will proceed in getting the necessary licenses.
      In presenting details of the proposal to the board, tribal Chairman Leon Bear said the facility would solve the tribe's economic woes and create jobs.
      "The economic benefits to the tribe will allow the band to meet its economic goals and will benefit the state of Utah," Bear said at the hearing. "This facility will provide an important service to the nation."
      State Rep. Judy Ann Buffmire, D-Salt Lake City, told the board that the plight of the Goshutes needs to be addressed, but that storing nuclear waste is not the answer to their problems.
      "There is not enough knowledge, or not to me, to risk endangering Utah citizens and making Utah the country's dump," Buffmire said.
      Buffmire and the five other Democratic members of the Utah House have submitted a letter to the board opposing the plan.
      One of their prime concerns is that the fuel would end up staying in Utah because of the federal government's trouble in finding a permanent waste storage site.
      The federal government has long sought to create a site at Yucca Mountain in Southern Nevada, but political opposition there has stalled the effort. Meantime, utility companies say they have run out of on-site storage space for spent fuel rods and need a resting place for the dangerous material.
      Scott Northard, the project's manager and a spokesman for Minneapolis-based Northern States Power, which serves five states, said the lease would run 25 years with a 25-year extension option.
      "In 50 years or less, there will be no indication that the facility was ever there," Northard said, adding that there would be "nothing left behind."
      Bear said the tribe will petition the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this summer for a license that would allow them to accept spent nuclear fuel rods. He expects the entire process of gaining approval for the site to take three to five years.