The government is already feeling the heat of a federal law that requires it to take the waste off the hands of nuclear power utilities. Congressional inaction during the 1980s and 1990s resulted in a flurry of lawsuits against the government by the utilities, seeking to force the government to fulfill its commitment to take the waste.

Garrish said the damages imposed by the courts could reach $2 billion to $3 billion if the repository opens in 2010, and $1 billion more a year after that.

Utah's attraction

The uncertainties surrounding Yucca Mountain's opening date have made PFS more and more attractive to the utilities that are running out of space to store the waste in cooling ponds.

But critics say the industry is perpetuating a myth. Yes, the pools are filling, but the utilities all have enough land around the power plants to store the fuel rods in dry casks similar to the ones being proposed at PFS.

"And as Gov. Leavitt pointed out, if the dry casks are so safe, why not leave them where they are?" said Kevin Kamps, nuclear waste specialist with the Nuclear Information and Resource Center. "There is unlimited space around the plants."

The issue is more complicated at eight sites where the power plants have closed their doors, leaving in place 2,400 metric tons of waste waiting for permanent storage. The industry spends about $5 million per year just to secure the waste at each site, making it a $40 million a year problem, according to Mitch Singer, spokesman for the pro-industry Nuclear Energy Institute, which does not support PFS.

And that's not counting the waste from decommissioned reactors at other sites that have still-operational reactors at the same locale, he noted.

PFS could be an economic solution, especially if Yucca Mountain is delayed years beyond 2012.

But it is only a solution if Yucca Mountain is indeed going to open at all. "The entire premise of PFS is that Yucca Mountain will be built," Kamps said.

The Nevada congressional delegation remains confident they can kill Yucca. Unlike Utah, which failed in its attempts to challenge PFS in court, Nevada has successfully challenged many different aspects of the facility.

And revelations this past week that a federal employee falsified data used in a Yucca Mountain environmental study on groundwater could result in a new round of environmental studies and lawsuits, further delaying the project.

"Yucca is not going to be moving forward anytime soon," Matheson predicted.