WASHINGTON — Delays in opening a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain are forcing atomic energy producers to consider interim storage sites — like the one proposed on Goshute tribal lands in Utah's Skull Valley — for the spent fuel rods piling up around the country.

"I don't think we would take anything off the table," said John Kane, head of governmental affairs for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the powerful lobbying arm of the industry.

That "anything" would include the plan by Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of NEI utilities, to build an above-ground storage site in Tooele County where the waste could stay up to 40 years before moving on to Yucca Mountain.

At a news media luncheon Wednesday, NEI officials insisted time and again their priority is getting Yucca Mountain funded and operational. Despite growing concerns that it will not open until 2010 or later, officials said they have no real contingency plan.

Waste will likely continue to accumulate at nuclear power plants in deep-water ponds or in dry casks — both temporary solutions. Or it could be shipped to a temporary holding facility at Yucca or to some other site.

But if the Yucca plan falls apart — and there is growing sentiment on Capitol Hill that it might — the nuclear industry would be between a rock and a hard place. With space for temporary on-site storage running out, the industry and its government overseers would have to start over the process of finding a suitable facility, a task that would take up to a decade or more.

"If Yucca is found not to be acceptable, we have to find another site," said Marvin Fertel, NEI senior vice president.

Officially, NEI does not support the Goshute interim storage plan, and officials insist the safest way to address the waste problem is to ship it once from the power plant to a permanent storage site and bury it far underground.

"We're focused on Yucca Mountain, not interim storage," Kane said.

If the industry can solve that pesky waste problem — "and it's the government's responsibility to develop a permanent waste site" — then the future is bright for nuclear power. With support from key legislative leaders and the White House, the industry is poised to start constructing an entire new "fleet" of nuclear power plants to help meet the nation's growing power needs.

The nation's power consumption is expected to increase by a third by 2020.

The industry, which sees growing public support for clean energy such as nuclear power, plans to proceed with the new construction despite the lack of a permanent waste storage solution.

Of course, more nuclear power plants mean more waste.

Kane and Fertel both said they hope that Nevada's fierce opposition to Yucca Mountain will soften and that officials there will engage in constructive dialogue.

That isn't likely. Sen. Harry Reid, the new Democratic leader of the Senate, is unequivocal in his opposition and has pledged to do everything he can to block it.

And the more Reid and others can delay Yucca Mountain, the more attractive interim storage sites such as Tooele County will become.

Still, "We're open to any solution," Kane said.

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E-mail: spang@desnews.com