Energy secretary denies looking at Skull Valley

WASHINGTON — The Energy Department is not interested in becoming a client of Private Fuel Storage, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told Sen. Orrin Hatch.

The statement, which mirrors what the department has expressed before, comes at the same time anti-nuclear activists flooded congressional offices this week to lobby against the department's new nuclear power program and its plans to store nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, while nuclear utility officials called for Congress to move forward on the project.

The department has previously said it is not interested in the nuclear waste storage site planned for Goshute Indian land in Tooele County, but Hatch said Bodman "made very clear that the administration does not support putting nuclear waste in Skull Valley."

Private Fuel Storage, a private company originally made up by investments from eight nuclear power companies, sent a letter to Congress proposing that the department move nuclear waste to its recently licensed facility or that it reimburse utilities that would decide to move their waste there until Yucca opened.

At a meeting at Energy Department headquarters Wednesday, Hatch said he and Bodman discussed strategy "for putting this plan to bed," although he would not go into details. Hatch said Bodman said there is "no interest whatsoever" from the department on moving waste to Utah.

"This was a 'Hail Mary' pass in the last seconds of the game but the problem is they have no receivers," Hatch said of PFS's request for the department to become its client.

Two of the original eight investors in PFS — Southern Co. and Florida Power and Light — have opted out of the program completely while Xcel Energy, which holds the largest percentage of the consortium, and Entergy Corp., will freeze future investments.

Representatives from seven companies met with Hatch Wednesday. Genoa FuelTech, which owns the Dairyland Power Reactor in LaCrosse, Wis., and is the home base for PFS Chairman John Parkyn, did not participate.

Other waste-related meetings took place here this week as the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability's "DC Days" brought activists from all over the country including two from Utah: Vanessa Pierce, the program director for Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah and Mike Fife, a member of HEAL.

Pierce met with Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell on Tuesday, who expressed the same disinterest in PFS that Bodman did with Hatch.

The two Utahns also met with Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and staff members of the rest of the delegation to talk about the PFS project and other nuclear matters.