That could increase the pressure for a temporary site like PFS, which would have an NRC license for up to 40 years. But if Nevada can stop Yucca Mountain, utilities that banked on Yucca Mountain and shipped waste to Skull Valley as a temporary measure could then be faced with the costly prospect of returning the waste to the power plants when the lease in Utah expired.

Utah's fear is that in such a scenario, the utilities would walk away from the waste, saying it is DOE's problem, and that PFS would become a de facto permanent storage facility. And since the company is a limited liability corporation, Utah would have little legal recourse.

Temporary solutions

Lost amid the Yucca Mountain debate in the nation's capital is the growing chorus of concern — sung by the industry, regulators and politicos alike: Yucca Mountain is not going to open on schedule, if at all, and that some temporary solution is needed to bridge the gap.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, is preparing legislation for temporary storage of nuclear waste "at a DOE facility," according to one Senate staffer.

It is not clear where that facility would be. One possibility is Yucca Mountain, which is a DOE facility. Waste casks could be stored outside the deep storage permanent repository and then moved inside once it is built.

Efforts in the 1990s to have temporary storage at Yucca Mountain were all defeated in Congress.

Aside from PFS, any other temporary facility would be many years away from being licensed. It took PFS seven years to move through the licensing process, giving it a leg up on any alternative site.

That is why there is some talk in the industry that it makes sense to "federalize" the PFS facility in Utah, turning it into a temporary waste storage facility under DOE's authority.

Utah House members, along with Huntsman, say the real solution to temporary storage is for the NRC to extend the licenses for on-site storage at the nuclear power plants for another 30 to 40 years to give reprocessing technology a chance to catch up.

One PFS member, a nuclear power giant in the Midwest, already has filed for an NRC license to expand and extend its on-site storage, leading Utahns to believe the industry could be persuaded to leave the waste where it is.

If the economics of recycling can be worked out over time, there is no need for either PFS or Yucca Mountain, Utah and Nevada officials agree.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate minority leader and a leading architect of opposition to Yucca Mountain, has a bill calling for on-site storage and turning ownership of the waste over to DOE, which would pay for the storage costs.

Some Utahns are listening closely.

"We should definitely keep our options open with Harry Reid," Bishop said. "His bill is a very viable option."

And it just might be the last arrow in Utah's quiver.

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E-mail: spang@desnews.com