WASHINGTON — The White House offered up some sympathy to Utah's concerns over the temporary storage of 4,000 nuclear waste casks in Tooele County, even agreeing with Utah's Republican senators Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett that it is a really bad idea.

But when the meeting was over, the senators received little encouragement that administration officials could — or would — do much to stop the private project, which recently received a license recommendation from the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, a judicial arm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"We had very, very good discussions," Hatch said. "It is a very difficult set of issues. The ultimate goal is to have a repository at Yucca Mountain, and we will have to work to see that that is where it goes. They know that Yucca Mountain is the ultimate goal here."

Hatch and Bennett took their concerns to the White House Wednesday, meeting with Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and other top officials to express concerns and enlist administration support. In some regards, they got what they wanted.

"They agreed with us that it is not in the national interest," Bennett said.

And they agreed that spent nuclear fuel should be moved only once, from the nation's 103 nuclear power plants to permanent storage in Nevada.

But the White House and Utah senators apparently agreed that it may be beyond the ability of the federal government to block a private project initiated by a consortium of nuclear power utilities, called Private Fuel Storage, who signed a contract with the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes to store the waste for up to 40 years on tribal lands about 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

The Utah senators outlined for the administration a litany of reasons why temporary storage in above-ground casks is not a good idea — from their proximity to Salt Lake City and the military's Utah Test and Training Range, to their potential targeting by terrorists.

Hatch said the White House understands those concerns, but whether the White House will intervene is another story.

"Of course they have the power," he said. "There is no question about it."

But, he added, "what is involved here is to prevent (PFS) from stacking this stuff above ground where two private entities, one of which is a shell corporation (PFS) and the other a small Indian tribe with less than 125 people. That's ridiculous."

The NRC is set to rule on the decision of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, something that is considered a mere formality. Bennett said the White House cannot intervene with the NRC.

Both senators reiterated their support for the Yucca Mountain project, a permanent storage solution wherein spent nuclear fuel would be stored deep underground in Nevada — something the Nevada delegation has been fighting. Due to legislative opposition and legal maneuvering, the Yucca Mountain facility's opening has been delayed until at least 2012.

The delays surrounding Yucca Mountain, along with a growing uncertainty that it will ever happen, has renewed interest in the PFS proposal, which would allow utilities to temporarily store their waste in Utah pending the eventual opening of Yucca Mountain.

The PFS facility, with license approval from the NRC, could open as soon as 2007.

Bennett is holding fast to a commitment made by all by a few members of the consortium not to pursue the Skull Valley project so long as Yucca Mountain is moving forward. The question is whether the project is moving forward fast enough to meet the industry's needs.

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E-mail: spang@desnews.com