N-waste licensing on hold for month

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has put on hold for at least a month licensing proceedings for plans to store used nuclear-plant fuel on the Skull Valley Goshute reservation in Tooele County.

The Friday decision to stall the licensing process was due to a request by the utility consortium behind the project, Private Fuel Storage. The company says it needs more time to answer new questions raised by staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has final say on the license.

The company wants to store up to 44,000 tons of high-level waste for up to 40 years on the impoverished Skull Valley reservation 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, until a permanent storage facility could be built at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

The licensing board's inquiry will focus on what would happen if a fighter jet on a training mission crashed into the slab where the casks would be stored above ground, untethered and in the open air.