A 'wild' fix for nuke waste

More evidence of questionable work on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump has surfaced, according to a U.S. Department of Energy inspector general report. Criminal investigations are under way, so officials are fairly guarded about the specific content of e-mails uncovered in an ongoing probe. But they have said that some refer to quality control issues. For instance, one e-mail said, "We may want to backdate the notebook to when we started putting things together."

This could mean even greater delays in the opening of Yucca Mountain, which was designated by Congress in 2002 as a national repository for 77,000 tons of spent reactor fuel and high-level defense nuclear waste. While that can be considered as good news, it is somewhat troublesome in that backers of a private nuclear waste facility in Utah's western desert might use the latest news on Yucca Mountain as leverage to move ahead with the Utah project, which is designed to hold 44,000 tons of waste generated at nuclear power plants.

Neither Yucca Mountain nor the proposed Private Fuel Storage in Tooele County is an acceptable solution to the nation's nuclear waste issue. For one, the West shouldn't be written off as the nation's nuclear waste dump. For another, two finite dumps cannot be considered the final answer to perpetual waste streams.

If this waste is as safe as proponents contend it is, there is no reason to move it until a long-range solution can be achieved. A "temporary" above-ground storage facility on tribal lands in Utah's western desert near the Utah Test and Training Range is a ridiculous "solution." In the eyes of the federal government, "temporary" means 40 years. Keep in mind that fighter jets from Hill Air Force Base use the nearby training range for live-ordnance training.

We hope that, between the efforts of state officials and Utah's congressional delegation, the Private Fuel Storage facility can be derailed. Thus far, backers of the dump have enjoyed considerable success at administrative levels. This fall, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted a license to Private Fuel Storage to construct and operate a nuclear waste storage facility at the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation.

Late last week, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., was in Washington, D.C., to huddle with members of Utah's congressional delegation to keep nuclear waste out of Utah. The Utah proposal includes designating the Cedar Mountain area as a wilderness to block rail shipments of nuclear waste to the PFS facility.

Presently, Cedar Mountain Wilderness appears to be Utah's best bet in keeping nuclear waste away. It takes on added urgency given the latest news about Yucca Mountain. Indeed, the congressional delegation must keep the wilderness area in the final version of the defense bill.