Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, felt it was unacceptable to wait on a court decision, so he met with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on June 29, said spokesman Peter Carr. Hatch explained to the secretary that there was no reason to wait, and the department had the power to just cancel the lease and refuse the land use.

Lane Beattie, president of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement that the decision means a positive economic impact for the state as a whole.

"The future is not brighter for Hill Air Force Base, Utah's tourism industry and the Salt Lake City's Central Business District as this ill-fated plan is rightly denied," Beattie said.

But the PFS deal, originally approved in 1997, has been key to Bear's economic development plans for the Goshutes.

He declined to discuss financial details of the plan to create an interim storage site for 40,000 tons of nuclear waste on the reservation but said the lease denial could cost the tribe "probably millions" of dollars in future revenue, depending on how much waste was actually stored there.

So far, PFS has spent more than $20 million, including licensing costs and payments to the Skull Valley band.

In the decision released Thursday, the BIA said it had considered the economic impacts of the lease disapproval on the Goshutes, but concluded "that it is not consistent with the conduct expected of a prudent trustee to approve a proposed lease that promotes storing (spent nuclear fuel) on the reservation."

However, the BIA said that denying the lease does not halt other economic development activities the tribe could pursue.

Bear said if the deal is indeed over, there will be others.

"I was told a long time ago by my elders, it's a matter of if it comes, it comes, and if doesn't, it doesn't," Bear said. "What does the band have to begin with anyway? We had nothing, we still have nothing."

Bear acknowledged that, despite the economic benefits, bringing nuclear waste to this reservation has been controversial among some members of the band. Among those is Margene Bullcreek, who has long opposed the PFS deal and has been calling for a new election since Bear's term expired in 2004. Bear has canceled seven such elections to date, citing a failure to reach a quorum of 44 members.

A new resolution was sent to the Bureau of Indian Affairs last month, after Vice Chairwoman Lori Bear resigned, effectively dissolving the executive committee. It called for tribal business to stop until an election could be held to elect an executive committee, which includes a secretary and vice chairman, both vacant, and the chairman position, said Chet Mills, superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Uintah and Ouray Agency.

Mills said the resolution wasn't valid, and he has yet to receive any valid documents from Skull Valley. An election is likely at least a month away, he said.

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com