Energy bill doesn't include ban on N-fuel shipments

Language of the energy act approved by the Senate on Tuesday did not include an amendment proposed by Utah senators Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett that would have banned the shipment of spent nuclear fuel to a non-federal facility.

The amendment was intended to block a consortium of nuclear power utilities from shipping waste to Goshute tribal lands in Tooele County.

Hatch and Bennett withdrew their amendment, having received an on-the-record statement from the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Pete Dominici, that the Goshute storage plan was not part of the nation's nuclear waste strategy.

The commitment was vital, Hatch said, because he did not consider Dominici to be "friendly" to Utah's opposition to the waste.

Pulling the amendment was a strategic move that lays the groundwork for Hatch and Bennett to start working the other senators on the fact the Goshute storage plan is not part and parcel to the Yucca Mountain permanent storage site supported by the White House and a majority of senators.

"A large majority of senators support Yucca Mountain and a large number associate Skull Valley with Yucca Mountain," Hatch said. "We are trying to create a disconnect (between the two sites). The two issues are not connected; Skull Valley is not part of our national waste strategy."