Utahns can put a full-court press on plans to store high-level nuclear waste in Skull Valley. But we only have through May 8 to make our voices heard and convince the Bureau of Land Management that transporting waste to Skull Valley is not in the public's interest.

A few nuclear power utilities want to transport 44,000 tons — almost one-half — of our nation's spent nuclear fuel to an above-ground, away-from-reactor storage site at a tiny Indian reservation in Tooele County. These companies formed a shell corporation, Private Fuel Storage, and have secured the nation's first-ever license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a private, offsite storage site. With its license in hand, PFS has declared victory, saying the site is inevitable. But the license is meaningless if the site isn't built, and construction depends on the BLM approving either a rail spur to Skull Valley or an intermodal transfer facility to transfer the large casks of spent fuel to trucks that would carry the fuel on an existing road. Should the BLM deny these rights of way, the PFS plan is dead.

Thanks to a wilderness bill sponsored by Congressman Rob Bishop and pushed through with the help of the entire Utah congressional delegation, PFS's first option, the rail spur, has been blocked for good. Now, the last stand in the Skull Valley fight is over the BLM's approval of PFS's second option: the intermodal transfer facility. The BLM has made it very clear that its decision will be based on whether this option is in the public's interest. If the BLM determines that the answer is "no," it will be forced to deny PFS's last viable transportation option.

I urge everyone in Utah to contact the BLM and let it know that this reckless proposal is not in the nation's public interest.

This is a threat to our security here in Utah. PFS's transfer facility would sit immediately adjacent to Interstate 80, a major freeway and the only east-west corridor in the state of Utah. Nearly 80 percent of Utah's population sits within 50 miles of the facility. It is dangerously close to our international airport. PFS intends to offload very large casks of nuclear waste from rail cars and load them onto oversize semitrailer trucks for transportation down a narrow road with no shoulders or proper road bed.

Most people in Tooele live near the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. In the case of a mishap at this facility, Skull Valley road is one of only three emergency evacuation routes for Tooele County's ever-growing population and the Skull Valley Band. It would not be in the public's security or health interest to approve a plan that would regularly place these gigantic trucks on any of these evacuation routes.

The transfer facility also lacks any federal oversight. The Department of Energy says the PFS plan is outside the scope of our nation's policy for handling spent nuclear fuel. Because it's a private facility, the DOE would not oversee or take responsibility for this waste. Instead, the security and safety measures at the site would be managed by a shell corporation of private companies. Many question if it would have the resources to handle a major crisis.

I want to stress that this is far from a "not-in-my-back-yard" argument. Even the only nuclear engineer on the three-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission is against this. In fact, six of the eight members of PFS have now publicly distanced themselves from the PFS plan.

We have a solid case, but we need to make it — repeatedly and resoundingly. Comments should be directed to the BLM through Pam Schuller, pam_schuller@blm.gov, or by fax at 801-977-4397.

PFS can't go forward without the BLM's approval. Let's make sure the BLM has the public record it needs to deny this thing once and for all.

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Orrin G. Hatch is Utah's senior senator.