WASHINGTON — Utah could be spared a federal nuclear waste storage site under a new plan unveiled in the Senate Tuesday that creates a federal policy to temporarily store nuclear waste until the federal repository planned in Nevada would open.

The plan, created in the pending Senate energy spending bill by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., specifically says that new federal facilities aimed at storing nuclear waste could not be "in a State where a commercial, away-from-reactor storage facility is authorized."

Private Fuel Storage, a privately funded nuclear waste storage site planned for the Goshute Indian Reservation in Tooele County, received its license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this year.

While the pending bill does not ban PFS or prohibit nuclear utilities from using its services, it does limit the federal government's involvement and would create federal competition for PFS by creating storage sites in states with nuclear waste or regionally. Domenici allocated $10 million to the program to get it started out of money earmarked to pay for nuclear waste storage.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, agreed the bill does not specifically mention Utah, but said his staff will work to get the language written in a way that would limit nuclear waste from coming to Utah.

"Today's vote is good news for Utah. It eliminates the need for the PFS facility in Utah and endorses reprocessing efforts, which I have long supported," Bennett said. "I believe the proposal supported unanimously today makes great strides in our efforts to find a long-term solution to the nation's nuclear waste challenge."

The full committee is scheduled to take up the bill Thursday and it would likely go to the floor when the Senate returns from the July Fourth recess. Once approved, select House and Senate members would work out the differences between the House energy spending bill passed last month and the Senate bill. The House bill contained money for interim waste storage but specified that the department should look at private facilities as option for storing waste.

PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin had not seen the exact proposal yet when contacted Tuesday, but noted that newly proposed facilities would still need to be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, whereas PFS already has its license.

The government plans to store waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas but the project has faced several obstacles and did not open in 1998 as planned. The interims sites would be open for 25 years, relieving some of the government's liability in its failure to take the waste as planned, Domenici said.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., supports the new storage option calling it "Yucca neutral" during Tuesday's meeting. Reid strongly opposes the Yucca project but it is currently the government's only plan to handle used nuclear fuel by law.

"My goal is on-site, dry cask storage of nuclear waste," Reid said. "While this bill does not fully accomplish that personal goal of mine, it is a significant step in the right direction."

Bennett and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah support a bill introduced by Reid that would keep nuclear waste at nuclear reactors.

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