WASHINGTON — The nation will need an interim storage option for nuclear waste, and Private Fuel Storage Chairman John Parkyn has not ruled out putting it in Utah — despite recent rulings to the contrary.

Nuclear-waste storage continues to be a debated topic in Congress, and a bill affecting current nuclear-waste policy was introduced Wednesday in the Senate. The government's plan is to ultimately store nuclear waste in Nevada, but the longer that takes, the stronger the need will be for temporary storage, Parkyn said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs earlier this month voided a lease that PFS had with the Skull Valley Goshutes to store the waste on their reservation in Tooele County. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and other state lawmakers said this meant the end of the idea of nuclear-waste storage in Utah, but Parkyn is still optimistic about the proposed Tooele County facility.

Utah strongly opposes Private Fuel Storage and does not want nuclear-waste storage on the reservation for a variety of reasons, including its proximity to Hill Air Force Base's training range. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted PFS a license earlier this year, despite the state's numerous objections raised during the hearing process.

Parkyn would not go into details on his plans to get around the bureau's decision, saying he and others involved in the project are still going over the decisions handed down by the Interior Department on Sept. 7.

Platts, an energy information company, included Parkyn in a conference Wednesday in Washington called "Nuclear Fuel Strategies: Fueling the Growth of Nuclear Power." Parkyn spoke on interim storage options.

He said utilities are wondering what will happen as delays continue in the federal storage site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, but the companies still need to find some way to store nuclear waste. Most can store it at the power plants, but Parkyn said the government will have to look at interim storage at some point.

Currently, federal law only allows the government to store waste at Yucca Mountain, which was supposed to open in 1998.

But Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., introduced a bill Wednesday that would allow the Energy Department to file for a permit to build a storage facility at the Nevada Test Site at the same time the department submits its license application for the repository at Yucca Mountain. After authorization from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the department could begin moving waste to the Test-Site storage facility before Yucca would open.