In fact, the drive to protect Hill Air Force Base is every bit as strong among the Utah delegation as is the effort to keep nuclear waste out of Utah.

"The Air Force sees (the storage of nuclear waste in Tooele County) as a real threat to their training operations," said one member of Utah's delegation, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Walker also played up efforts to save Hill, which will be considered for closure under the next round of national hearings on which military bases to close. "It would be a great way to preserve the purity of the Utah Test and Training Range," Walker said.

Matheson said it is not a stretch of the imagination to include the wilderness language in the Defense Reauthorization Act because there is such a strong defense component with the viability of the Utah Test and Training Range at stake.

Walker also emphasized that the wilderness strategy was just one of many discussed by the delegation.

Utah officials are discussing whether to appeal a decision by a federal court judge that state law cannot supersede federal law on the regulation of nuclear waste. Walker pointed out that Minnesota has a law prohibiting the storage of nuclear waste there and that law has not been overturned by federal courts.

"Getting the Supreme Court to even consider it would be hard, and whether they would even consider it, I don't know," she said.

Officials say they also discussed ways to negotiate with the Goshutes to get them to voluntarily abandon the idea of nuclear waste storage.

And there is talk about working with Nevada, where all nuclear waste is ultimately headed under current federal policy. Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada has been designated as a permanent repository for the nation's stockpile of nuclear waste, and the Nevada delegation has been fighting it tooth and nail.

The Utah delegation has supported the Yucca Mountain solution, which has put it at odds with its neighbors to the west.

"We talked about a lot of next-steps," Walker said.

"The day is not done on this one," Matheson said.

---

E-mail: spang@desnews.com; donna@desnews.com