PFS settlement in works

Lawmakers today will consider a "discount" settlement of nearly $850,000 with attorneys for Private Fuel Storage and the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians, who successfully fought state laws designed to keep out high-level nuclear waste.

Members of the Legislative Management Committee can act on the settlement, which was negotiated down from more than $1 million, Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said.

"I think it'll be acceptable to the Legislature," Valentine said. "The settlement is a good discount for the state."

Meanwhile, the state has filed a new appeal on a separate issue, challenging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's granting a license for PFS.

The Deseret Morning News has learned the amount of the settlement, which covers attorneys fees, is $775,000 for PFS and $68,000 for the Skull Valley Band. The money would come from a fund previously appropriated in the budget for the Department of Environmental Quality.

Dianne R. Nielson, executive director of the DEQ, confirmed that the settlement is for attorneys fees but did not disclose the amount.

The issue involved state laws severely restricting the transportation of high-level nuclear waste in Utah. PFS and the Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indians challenged the statutes in federal court, and "we lost that case" before U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell, Nielson said.

Following that ruling, the state appealed the matter to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Losing there, Utah officials asked the Supreme Court to review the case; last December, the highest court declined to hear it.

The PFS high-level nuclear storage plan appears dead after recent federal decisions refusing to allow construction of the temporary storage site on Goshute land. But the lawyers for PFS and the Goshutes must be paid by the state as winners in their legal challenge.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s office also declined to confirm the amount of money agreed to in the settlement.

"The governor is supportive of settling with both the attorneys for PFS and the attorneys for the band," his general counsel, Michele Christiansen, said. "It's a good resolution in the sense the possibility would have been out there the state could have ended up paying more in attorneys fees."

And on Monday, Utah attorneys filed a brief appealing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's decision that allowed the plant's licensing.

"Technically, PFS still has a license and we don't want to lose any of the appeals that we have from the nine years of litigating this case," said Assistant Utah Attorney General Denise Chancellor.

Utah officials want to challenge the "more egregious NRC decision," she said. The matter was filed with the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.