Top court asked to review nuke ruling

In light of recent court rulings limiting their discretion in matters of nuclear-waste transportation and storage, top Utah officials have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on how much power the federal government should have in the matter.

"In certain cases, the federal government ought not to be making decisions about our safety here in Utah," Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said at a Friday morning news conference. "This is a states' rights issue. The federal government can't force us to take these nuclear fuel rods."

The Skull Valley Band of Goshutes contracted with Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear power facilities, in 1996 for an open-air storage facility on tribal lands in Tooele County. The project, which requires the approval of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of the Interior, has since been tied up in licensing matters.

State officials have vehemently opposed the proposed storage facility. Lawmakers between 1998 and 2001, with the help of former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, passed a series of laws specifically designed to block the storage of up to 40,000 tons of nuclear waste.

Gov. Olene Walker on Friday reiterated her continuing opposition to the project.

"I hope that the spent nuclear fuel rods never travel through Utah," Walker said. "Never."

In a petition filed Thursday with the U.S. Supreme Court, the state asks the high court to review an August decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In that decision, the appeals court upheld a Utah federal judge's decision to strike down the challenged laws. Both courts ruled that federal law pre-empts state laws in matters of nuclear safety.

But the state maintains the 10th Circuit overstepped its bounds in ruling the provisions invalid, noting that the laws cannot be legally challenged without ever having been applied and finding several instances where they can be validly applied without interfering with federal law.

"The laws at issue serve vital and traditional state interests," the petition states. "They prepare to address, in limited ways, a range of real-world problems that are potentially caused by a proposed major new development within Utah's borders — the storage of vast quantities of nuclear waste."

The 10th Circuit ruling, according to the petition, "substantially disables states from doing what they are legitimately entitled to do: take note of the distinctive problems caused by a proposed major new development within their borders and craft legislative measures to address all the aspects of development that, even under the (Atomic Energy Act), are left to the states."