But it also highlights the risks of transporting wastes, criticizing the administration's support for a plan to ship nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, Nev. If enacted, it "would result in tens of thousands of rail and truck shipments of highly radioactive spent fuel — all potential terrorist targets — from reactors to a massive nuclear waste site."

Singer responded that it has been recognized since the 1950s that it is safer to have "one place buried 1,000 feet deep that borders on a military installation" for the nation's stockpile of nuclear waste. "It would be the Fort Knox of nuclear waste storage."

The Nuclear Energy Institute has not taken a position on the proposal to store waste in Utah.

Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of mostly Eastern nuclear power utilities, tired of waiting for the Yucca Mountain facility that is still years away, are awaiting final license approval for a temporary storage site on Goshute lands in Skull Valley.

The plan calls for up to 40,000 tons of highly radioactive waste to be stored in rows of casks on the valley floor about 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The waste could remain above ground for 20 years with the possibility of another 20-year lease after that.

The state has opposed the storage of spent nuclear fuel in Utah but has so far failed in its arguments to block PFS from obtaining the federal license for a temporary waste facility. The license application is still pending, and a ruling on a separate state claim is expected in January.

The state has also failed to stop the project through other avenues of litigation and legislation.

PFS project manager Scott Northard did not return calls.

The Public Citizen report cites one study by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that estimated the loss of tens of thousands of lives within 500 miles, and a Brookhaven National Laboratory report that predicted a contamination of 188 square miles in the event of burning radioactive wastes.

The report also criticizes the Bush administration for its cozy relationship with the nuclear industry, pointing out that Bush and the Republican National Committee have received $19.9 million in campaign contributions from the industry since 2000.

Another study in 2002 by a Washington, D.C., newspaper found the industry spent $51.2 million lobbying Congress. Another $149 million was spent lobbying the White House and executive branch agencies, the study reported.

The result, says Public Citizen, is that "three years after 9/11, Congress still has not enacted any legislation to reduce the terrorist threat at nuclear power plants, and the Bush appointees at the NRC have resisted using their regulatory powers to respond to the terrorism threat.