Utah nuclear waste foes 'wild' about defense bill

WASHINGTON — Nearly 100,000 proposed federal wilderness area acres, designed in part to protect the Utah Test and Training Range, would block Private Fuel Storage's plan to build a railroad to carry nuclear waste through the state if given congressional approval and the president's signature.

House and Senate negotiators have agreed to include Rep. Rob Bishop's Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area in a massive defense bill. The House and Senate must approve the final version, and the president must sign it before it becomes law.

The proposed protected area includes land where PFS would like to build a railroad to move waste to the proposed storage site on Goshute Indian reservation land in Tooele County's Skull Valley.

Nuclear waste still could be moved via trucks to the proposed Private Fuel Storage site, according to PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin. She had not seen a copy of the final language of the proposed bill, so could not comment specifically.

The state, however, has also vowed to block transport of waste over its highways.

Martin said it is safer to move waste via rail in an area where no one lives, rather than on trucks. She said PFS chose rail as its preferred option if the nuclear waste proposal eventually comes to fruition, but the license application also includes the truck option.

Utah's congressional delegation realizes this does not kill the storage site proposal, but members were still ecstatic the wilderness area language stayed in the bill, saying it is another step toward blocking the PFS project entirely.

"This is a time when this delegation, which may be small in number, proves it can pack a pretty good punch," said Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. "We may only be five, but I think this delegation can get a lot done in this country and in this Congress."

Bishop, a Utah Republican, originally introduced the bill in March and was able to attach it to the House version of the 2006 National Defense Authorization bill. Former Rep. Jim Hansen had originally introduced the idea of using wilderness designation to block PFS before he left Congress.

As Congress tries to wrap up its business for the year, weeks of discussion and intense lobbying, including a personal visit from Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. last week, kept the provision in the defense bill. There was optimism but little certainty, particularly in the past few days, on what the final outcome would be. After a Thursday night meeting with Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., the delegation was relieved to know it would stay.