Feds to study risks of shipping waste to Utah

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 | 10:57 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- The Homeland Security Department will study risks associated with shipping nuclear waste to Utah, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. told the Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday.

The Utah newspaper is reporting that Huntsman Jr. said that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has agreed to study the security risks of moving the waste to the proposed temporary nuclear fuel storage site in Skull Valley, Utah.

A spokesman for the Homeland Security Department would not comment this morning on the meeting or the study Huntsman said was promised.

Huntsman said the full scope of the Homeland Security assessment is unclear, but it probably would weigh the dangers of transportation and the risks of storing the fuel at the reactors, temporarily on the Skull Valley reservation and at the proposed permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Critics of the Yucca Mountain nuclear dump have used the transportation argument for year as a key drawback to storing the waste in Nevada. Moving the waste can lead to train or truck accidents and, after Sept. 11, 2001, of terrorist attack or sabotage that could lead to radiation exposure and contamination, they say.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., reintroduced the "Nuclear Waste Terrorist Threat Assessment and Protection Act," earlier this year. She has tried to get the bill through Congress several times, which would require a federal analysis of safety and security at Yucca itself as well as shipments to the site.

Berkley said in a statement that Department of Homeland Security should also looking at the threats to Yucca Mountain shipments.

"I welcome a commitment from the Department to protect the American public by moving forward on a review without waiting for Congress to act," she said.

Her bill has seven co-sponsors, including Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to decide soon whether to issue a license to Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear power companies that aim to store waste in Utah. However, the state has appeals pending and also could take its case to court, which Huntsman said could drag the issue out for years.

Federal regulators "have looked at the safety issues, but they haven't looked at security, which, post-9/11, should be considered," Huntsman told The Salt Lake Tribune. "In the day of the dirty bomb and car bombs this needs to be elevated to that level."

Huntsman said he also discussed the project with Vice President Dick Cheney, who asked questions about its status and the logistics of the proposed storage.

Sue Martin, spokeswoman for Private Fuel Storage, the coalition of utility companies that has a deal with the Goshutes to store depleted nuclear fuel rods on the Skull Valley Band's reservation 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, said PFS has committed to meeting any Homeland Security requirements to guarantee the facility is safe.

She said if studies find further safeguards are warranted, they will be put in place.

PFS contends consolidating the spent fuel at one site would make it easier to protect and that there are advantages to moving the waste away from the reactors, many of which are in populous urban areas or on waterways.

Huntsman has said that a terrorist attack on the PFS facility could spread radiation across the Wasatch Front and points further east.

A spokesman for Sen. Orrin Hatch said the Utah senator asked Chertoff during the secretary's confirmation hearing to study the security aspects of the PFS plan.

"It's a very good sign and a hopeful step that he has chosen to do so," said Hatch aide Adam Elggren.