Plan for nuke site in Utah called safe

Monday, Oct. 9, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

A plan to build a temporary storage site for high-level nuclear waste on an Indian reservation in Utah received its first approval.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday declared as safe the Goshute tribe's plan to lease reservation land 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City to a consortium of electric utilities for storing the waste.

Nevada officials fear the temporary storage of commercial nuclear waste in Utah could speed the opening of a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

One of the state's strategies to fight a Yucca Mountain repository is to sway public opinion along the transportation routes that would bring the deadly waste to Nevada. Once waste is as close as Utah, that argument would be largely undermined.

Yucca Mountain is the only site being considered as a permanent repository for 77,000 tons of commercial and defense waste, and if it passes scientific muster, the dump would open at the earliest in 2010.

Up to 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel could be stored on 820 acres of the Goshute Indian tribe's reservation at Skull Valley.

The Goshute plan still must survive an environmental impact statement and a round of environmental hearings, and it must win approval from three other federal agencies: the Surface Transportation Board, the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The NRC expects to make a final decision on the project in 2002.

For the past five years Congress has tried to temporarily move waste stored in 43 states to either the Nevada Test Site or Yucca Mountain. The attempts have failed after vigorous opposition by Nevada's congressional delegation and with the help of a presidential veto threat.

The federal government had promised the nuclear power industry it would have a solution to the waste disposal problem by 1998.

Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of eight electric utility companies, struck the agreement with the Goshutes and applied to the NRC in June 1997 to store spent fuel generated from commercial nuclear power plants for 20 years above ground at the Utah site.

To shield the radioactive material, canisters holding the waste would be welded closed, then placed into a cylinder made of 27 inches of concrete, encased by two steel shells. The casks would weigh 180 tons apiece.

"Of course we're pleased that this stage of the process has been completed and the NRC staff felt the facility could be operated safely," PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin said.

Among hazards the NRC considered were fire, lightning, floods, earthquakes and tornadoes. Other threats included in the risk assessment were a dropped cask, explosions, aircraft crashes and the crash of a cruise missile from the Utah Test and Training Range at Tooele, about 20 miles away.

Although the state of Utah has no direct regulatory say in the project, state officials have opposed it.

Gov. Mike Leavitt has used the possibility of a cruise missile crash to oppose the nuclear waste storage.

"If it's so safe, why do they want to move it out here?" Leavitt said.

A strong opponent of the plan to temporarily store nuclear waste in Utah, the governor said he expects the NRC report will be as flawed as a draft released by the commission earlier this year.