Nuclear waste site looks doomed

WASHINGTON — Private Fuel Storage no longer has a lease to use tribal lands to store nuclear waste in Tooele County in the wake of decisions made by two Interior Department agencies Thursday.

Utah politicians said the decisions leave almost no chance that the waste shipments will come to the state.

"This is the period at the end of the sentence," Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said. "It does it for us. This is the best news Utah has received in a long time."

In two separate decisions, the Bureau of Indian Affairs disapproved a lease that allowed PFS to use Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation land, and the Bureau of Land Management refused to grant the rights of way needed to build transportation methods needed to move tons of used nuclear fuel through the state and to the storage site.

"They can't get it to the reservation, and they have no site because they have no lease," said Denise Chancellor, Utah assistant attorney general. "I believe this is the end of the line."

The decisions create more tough obstacles for PFS. The company received its license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this year, lost several original investors and still waits for a response from the government to a request they do business together. PFS was originally made up a eight nuclear utilities that wanted to create an interim storage site for 40,000 tons of nuclear waste because the permanent federal storage site is so overdue.

The federal site, now planned for Nevada's Yucca Mountain, was supposed to open in 1998, but will not open until at least the next decade. Most utilities store spent fuel on site but face rising costs or space constraints.

Chancellor said she felt "euphoric" Thursday, reflecting on the 10-year battle against the project. The state fought against the project getting a license and still has a legal case pending in federal appeals court against it. She said from a legal standpoint, these are final decisions issued by the Interior Department, and she could not think how they could be changed.

"PFS is dead. It's that simple," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who announced the Interior Department decision Thursday. Rep. Chris Cannon , R-Utah, said the department did what "we expected them to do."

"This comes as very welcome news," Cannon said.

Private Fuel Storage spokeswoman Sue Martin said neither she nor consortium chairman John Parkyn had received or reviewed the documents from the Interior Department late Thursday, so she could not comment on their contents.

"We have to take a look at exactly what their reasoning is and what this all consists of," Martin said. She added that Hatch's proclamation that the project is dead "is a bit premature."