Nuclear dump in Utah set for approval

Monday, Feb. 10, 2003 | 11:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- An Indian reservation near Salt Lake City may receive federal approval within the next month to become a temporary high-level nuclear waste dump, a Nevada official said today.

Robert Loux, director of the state Office of Nuclear Projects, said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to approve the application from the Skull Valley Goshutes soon.

A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington today confirmed that a decision on the Goshute site is likely this month. The NRC gave preliminary approval to the plan in October 2000.

Loux said that the tribe is ready to begin construction and that it has started advertising in nuclear industry journals. He aslo says it expects to be ready to receive waste by the end of the year at the site about 40 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

It may be licensed for up to 40,000 metric tons of waste, Loux told the Senate Finance Committee today. The 40,000 tons is the maximum allowable for a temporary facility but Loux said the regulatory commission could change that.

Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, said he was happy to hear this development. He said those "sanctimonious senators" from Utah "deserve it in their own back yard."

The two senators from Utah voted against Nevada in casting their ballot to uphold the designation of Yucca Mountain as a permanent high-level dump. Shortly before the Senate vote on Yucca last year, Energy Department officials had assured Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett, who oppose the Goshute site, that there would be no need for the temporary Utah site if Yucca is approved.

The senators and their spokespersons were not immediately available for comment today.

It was not immediately clear how approval of the temporary Utah site could affect the future of the proposed permanent site at Yucca. Some argue that it would not bode well for Nevada if waste were shipped to Utah because it would put waste that much closer to Yucca.

But Loux said the opening of the repository on the Indian land might also mean federal officials give a more serious look at that alternative, rather than at Yucca Mountain.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she strongly opposes the Goshute site.

"We're still talking about transporting thousands of shipments of nuclear waste," she said. "It doesn't matter if you are bringing it to Utah or if you are bringing it to Nevada. It's bad public policy. And it does nothing to make the nation more energy self-sufficient. It just makes it more dangerous."

Nevada has several lawsuits before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., "which more often than not has ruled against the Department of Energy," Loux said. The Washington court has ruled on a number of nuclear cases, he told the committee.

The three judges who will sit on the panel hearing the Nevada challenges are "strict status constitutional guys" who don't allow federal agencies to stray from the law, Loux said.

He repeated that he was optimistic the federal appeals court will rule against the Energy Department and send the case back to the federal agency.