Another blow in fight to keep out nuclear waste

Next stop: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Utah lost its bid Tuesday to have an NRC board overturn its earlier decision that favored licensing the Private Fuel Storage nuclear waste storage facility proposed for Skull Valley. The next appeal apparently will be before the full NRC.

Mike Lee, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s general counsel on the issue, said Huntsman was disappointed by the development. "Nevertheless, the governor's really firm in his resolve to keep high-level nuclear waste out of Utah," he said.

"The state is going to use all of its resources at its disposal to keep any quantity of spent nuclear fuel from entering the state's borders."

"Disappointing but probably expected," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah.

The decision by the commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board bolsters the board's ruling of three months ago. The board held that a crash of an Air Force F-16 is so unlikely that the plant can be built.

The PFS facility, planned for land owned by the Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indian Tribe, would be about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The site is in a corridor that F-16s from Hill Air Force Base take toward the Utah Test and Training Range.

Two main issues were decided on Tuesday. The first was the state's claim that the board had not considered the possibility of a crash that didn't breach the protective container holding nuclear fuel but weakened it so that it might later leak radiation.

The second was an allegation that the the board was wrong in two matters it did consider: determining the strength of a cask to withstand crashes, and the likelihood of certain kinds of F-16 crashes.

The state lost on both categories. The board ruled that the state had not brought up the argument on non-breaching damage and asked the NRC to check into it. It also decided against the state on the second subject.

But Peter S. Lam, one of the three board members, refused to endorse the finding on the second subject, saying the board did not significantly alter its rationale in the Feb. 24 ruling on those matters. At that time, he issued a dissenting opinion.

A silver lining in the latest ruling is that the board agreed with the state that modified casks, with greater safeguards, will be needed. "Any other design and conditions are not covered by our decision," it noted.

Lee said this refers to custom-engineered casks that have not yet been engineered.

Meanwhile, he said, canisters inside the storage cask would not be accepted at the proposed Yucca Mountain permanent fuel repository in Nevada.