"I strongly disagree with the board's decision," Hatch said in a press release faxed to the Deseret Morning News, "but to be honest I expected it to go this way.

"There seems to be a bias within the NRC in favor of the nuclear industry on this issue, and we have already set our sights on other ways to stop this plan."

Marketing efforts

The director of the Utah Office of Indian Affairs, Forrest Cutch, said the decision "irks every Utahn to some extent, myself included.

"I can see why they're looking at that (plant). It's lucrative."

Cutch said the Skull Valley Goshutes were forced onto land that doesn't have much economic development value. "Now they're fighting back. It's their only lucrative opportunity.

"Everyone wants to get down on the Goshutes," Cutch said. He said big industries in the area are huge polluters, but the Goshutes are treated as "the bad guys."

Sue Martin, spokeswoman for Private Fuel Storage, said the decision is a major step. "It's not quite the end of the process, but it's the culmination of 7 1/2 years of the licensing board addressing concerns brought by the state and other interveners in the process," she said.

The state has been a participant the whole way, she said. "The fact that we have gotten through it, and all of the issues basically have been ruled in our favor, is great."

Assuming the NRC grants a license, the next step is for the company to launch marketing efforts to land storage contracts. Once that happens, she said, "we could start construction."

That could take a couple of years after the NRC decision, Martin added.

Jason Groenewold, director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, had the strongest reaction. "The federal government has long shown contempt for the healthy and safety of Utahns, and this is just the latest example," he said.

"Utah does not produce this dangerous waste, yet the federal government wants to make us the nation's nuclear waste dumping ground."

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Contributing: Deborah Bulkeley

E-mail: bau@desnews.com; jarvik@desnews.com