Prepare for bad nuke news

Utahns are naturally skeptical whenever they hear a federal official telling them they have nothing to fear from radiation in their midst. For decades during the last century, the government made similar assurances to people here, all the while exposing them to radiation that resulted in cancers and other diseases.

So when the nation's top nuclear regulator told reporters in Washington on Monday that people here have nothing to fear from a "temporary" repository for spent nuclear fuel rods 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City . . . well, it all sounds like another slick sales pitch.

And when he says the storage facility on the Goshute reservation in Skull Valley will not become a de facto permanent waste site, that sounds as if he thinks people here are pretty naive.

Given the political realities that have dogged the nuclear waste issue for decades now, and that have successfully put the Yucca Mountain solution on ice despite years of planning and preliminary construction, it seems ridiculous to suppose that a more permanent solution could be agreed to within 40 years. It also seems ridiculous to believe that the nation's political leaders won't be eager to take advantage of a site that already is accepting spent fuel rods.

We're pleased by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s efforts in Washington to lobby against allowing the fuel to come here. Honestly, however, we are not encouraged. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission seems certain now to approve the Goshute site for storage of waste sent here from a consortium of nuclear plants in points east. That leaves the Department of Interior as the last hope. If the governor and others can convince Interior Secretary Gale Norton to reject the license, the rods won't come.

But while Utahns hold out hope, it may be time for them to begin steeling themselves for the inevitable.

Perhaps NRC Chairman Nils A. Diaz is right when he says the danger from even a catastrophic terrorist strike on the waste would not pose much of a health risk for Utah's population centers. No one really knows because such a thing has never happened.

But in any event, storing the stuff in above-ground casks in the Utah desert is not the best solution. Ultimately, the best solution would be to reprocess the spent fuel rods the way Britain and France currently do, turning them into a mixed oxide fuel that could be used again by reactors.

That type of recycling has become difficult to do in this country ever since President Jimmy Carter signed an executive order against it during his administration. The second best solution, then, is to keep storing the rods on site at the 70 or so nuclear facilities nationwide.

The worst of all solutions is to transport the fuel rods to a temporary waste site. That means the nation will have a constant stream of highly radioactive materials on its highways and railways, at its nuclear power plants and in the desert in Utah.

That doesn't make sense, no matter who in Washington tries to tell us differently.