Utahns are taking battle over nuclear waste to top court

Utah's governor and attorney general are taking their fight over the transportation and storage of high-level nuclear waste to the country's highest court.

Gov. Olene Walker and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff will announce today the filing of a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to review a recent 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, which ruled that the federal government, not individual states, has ultimate authority over the transportation and storage of nuclear waste.

The appellate decision last August came as a blow to the efforts of Utah's officials in trying to block the storage of 40,000 tons of nuclear waste on tribal lands owned by the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes in the west desert.

The state had sought to overturn a July 2002 decision by U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell that held that a series of state laws, passed between 1998 and 2001, that heavily regulated and heavily taxed the presence of nuclear waste, conflicted with federal law.

In the weeks following the 10th Circuit ruling, there had been talk of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but officials speaking for the governor had said no decision had been made.

The announcement of the Supreme Court petition came Thursday evening in the form of a brief press release.

Walker and Shurtleff plan to meet in the Governor's Boardroom at the state Capitol today to discuss in further detail their decision to take their fight to the nation's highest court.