No spur, no nuclear dump?

A Bureau of Land Management official is refusing to sign an agreement that is needed if Private Fuel Storage is to build a railroad spur to its proposed repository site in Skull Valley.

Glenn A. Carpenter, manager of the BLM's Salt Lake field office, said he cannot sign the agreement until a moratorium on land-use planning is lifted. And that can't happen unless Congress removes the moratorium or the Air Force completes a resource study — a review the military seems in no hurry to finish.

Carpenter's letter was among three that Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, released Tuesday in a multipronged attack on plans for the high-level nuclear waste repository.

PFS is reconsidering its plans "because of our meeting with them," Hatch added in a Deseret Morning News telephone interview, "but I won't go beyond that for now."

Carpenter's letter says the BLM can't analyze the route of a railroad spur needed for the repository until a moratorium is lifted on land-use planning in the Skull Valley area. The moratorium, part of the Military Appropriations Act of 2000, was inserted into the bill by former Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah.

"So Jim is still working for Utah," Hatch commented.

The moratorium forbids BLM land-use planning in that part of Tooele County until the Air Force completes a study of resources in Skull Valley under the flight route to the Utah Test and Training Range. So far, the study has not been finished, according to the BLM.

Judging by the years that have passed since the moratorium began, the Air Force is in no rush to finish it. The storage of 44,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear fuel rods below the F-16 flight route could be an inconvenience to the Air Force.

In a press release, Hatch said he appreciates the BLM decision to follow the law. BLM's action has "jammed the NRC" and "sent a clear signal of more obstacles to come," he said.

The combination of the BLM objections and a letter from the Department of Energy secretary make it "clear the (Bush) administration is on our side," Hatch added in the release. "Let's face it, if the administration really wanted PFS to be built, there would be bulldozers out there right now.

"I am grateful the BLM and the administration are working with me to make sure that nuclear waste never makes a home in Utah."