Nuclear waste site looks doomed

"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."

Hatch, however, said that any notion that PFS could still put waste in Utah after Thursday's news is "pure hogwash."

"With this action, all but one nail has been driven into the PFS coffin," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah. "Now we just have to get PFS to surrender its license. Putting an above-ground, high-level nuclear storage dump right next to a test and bombing range never made sense, and it never will."

Lawmakers declared a cautious victory last year when Congress passed the Cedar Mountain Wilderness Act. The bill, signed into law by President Bush, protected land in the Utah Test and Training Range. But the measure also included what PFS needed to build its rail line down to the Goshute land.

The other option was to use heavy-haul trucks to move the waste, but the consortium would still need a right-of-way from the BLM to build a special facility on public land to handle the containers.

Hatch persuaded Interior to hold another public-comment period on whether it was in the public's best interest to allow PFS access to federal land to move the waste. The department received about 6,000 comments on the issue, spokesman Shane Wolfe said.

"Utah spoke and the BLM listened," Hatch said. "It proves that every citizen can make a difference."

In Thursday's decision, Chad Calvert, acting assistant secretary for Land and Minerals Management, said that the wilderness area voided the request for the rail-line land and that granting the land for the other transfer station would not go along with the agency's goal of managing public lands and avoiding environmental harm. He also brought up security concerns. -->

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said that "for years, the entire delegation has urged the Department of Interior to take this action. I raised this issue with Secretary Kempthorne prior to his confirmation last spring and stressed the importance of it to our state. I am delighted with his prompt response. This ends any possibility that the Goshute facility will ever be used for the storage of high-level nuclear waste."

As for the lease, the superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Uintah and Ouray Agency that originally signed the conditional lease in 1997 between the Goshutes and PFS for 820 acres of land did not have the power to sign such a document, said James Cason, associate deputy secretary.