Thursday, March 10, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Utah Republicans fight nuclear dump on reservation site
Hatch: 'Yucca Mountain is the ultimate goal'
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY -- Frustrated at failing to win over federal regulators, Utah officials took their case against a high-level nuclear repository proposed for a Utah Indian reservation to the White House on Wednesday.
Utah Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett and Rep. Rob Bishop met with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, a former Utah resident and Bush strategist.
Hatch and Bennett said the meeting was good, but they wouldn't say whether Bush administration officials had made any specific commitments to stop the commissioning of a nuclear waste dump on the Goshutes' Skull Valley land.
"They know that Yucca Mountain is the ultimate goal here; it's what has to be done under the circumstances and we're going to do everything to help them get there," Hatch said. "But we expect them to help us to not have to put up with this type of treatment."
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman will go to Washington next week to meet with Bush administration officials about several issues, including the state's opposition to the nuclear-waste plan.
The new effort comes after the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board rejected the state's argument that there was an unacceptable risk that a fighter from Hill Air Force Base could crash into the waste site and release radioactive material.
The state has asked the board to reconsider its decision. If that fails, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will decide whether to license the facility.
The repository would be on the Goshutes' Skull Valley land 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. It would be operated by Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of eight utilities, as a temporary dump for spent nuclear fuel rods before they are stored permanently at the proposed Yucca Mountain facility, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Opponents fear that if the temporary site is approved, the Yucca plans will be dropped and Utah will end up having the depleted nuclear fuel permanently.
Hatch said state lawmakers would have to go the extra mile to ensure that the state didn't "suffer the indignity of having 4,000 casks of spent fuel rods stored above ground" near the Utah testing range.
In 2002, Hatch and Bennett agreed to vote for storing waste at Yucca Mountain in exchange for a pledge from then Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Card that federal funds would not be used to help ship nuclear waste to the Goshute facility if it were licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
