WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied Utah's request to hear its case involving state laws designed to regulate and tax the proposed Private Fuel Storage nuclear waste storage site.

This was the state's last chance in this portion of its fight against the site. The state's laws may not be able to block it, but Denise Chancellor, an assistant attorney general, said there are "still a number of avenues" the state can take to attempt to block the PFS consortium of nuclear power companies from storing its spent nuclear fuel on the Goshutes' Skull Valley land in Tooele County.

Between 1998 and 2001, in an attempt to discourage the project, the state passed several laws to regulate and tax the 40,000 tons of used nuclear fuel slated to go to the PFS site.

But a federal judge in Salt Lake City struck down the laws, ruling that federal law pre-empts state laws in matters of nuclear safety. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling, and Monday's decision by the Supreme Court not to hear the case keeps the laws unenforceable.

Chancellor said the high court doesn't explain why it won't hear cases, and the denial does not mean the court sided with Utah or the federal government, which strongly urged the court to deny the state's request. Chancellor said the court gets thousands of requests a year to hear cases but only accepts less than 100.

"It was a long shot," she said.

PFS spokesman Sue Martin said the decision was important for the company. "It wasn't a comfortable situation to have those laws hanging over our heads."

There are still other challenges to PFS's plans, however, including the issuing of a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the company. Although the license has been approved, the state has asked the federal Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review that decision.

That license approval was much more important because "that was where the state could ask us all of the tough questions, and we had to prove that the facility could be operated safely," Martin said. "This (Supreme Court refusal to hear the case) is another hurdle we're glad to have behind us, because it cost us and the people of Utah a lot of money."

Other so-called hurdles include approval by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the lease for the land on the Goshute Reservation and approval from the Bureau of Land Management for a land withdrawal to build a railroad line that would bring canisters of nuclear waste to the site.

Chancellor said these options still keep the legal fight alive for the state.

Congressional action may also help.

Rep. Bob Bishop, R-Utah, is still working to keep language in the defense authorization bill that would designate 100,000 acres of land as wilderness and effectively block the nuclear waste storage site.

The Senate is in recess, but staff members can still work on details for the bill. It was not clear Monday when the final version of the bill would be complete.

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Contributing: Josh Loftin

E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com