WASHINGTON — Private Fuel Storage is not giving up on its quest to store nuclear waste in Utah, according to court documents filed in a federal appeals court Monday.

The consortium is not only defending its license granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to store nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes' land in Tooele County but also contemplating other lawsuits, according to the documents.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Land Management made decisions last September that voided the agreement PFS had with the Goshutes to store waste on their land and that did not make public land available for transportation routes. Those against the project, including the state of Utah and its congressional delegation, saw those decisions as a major blow to the site.

The state used those decisions as one of a few reasons the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit should reject the NRC's licenses for the proposed facility. But according to the papers filed Monday, PFS has not fully given up on its mission.

"Both PFS and the Band are actively considering seeking judicial review of these decisions," according to the filed brief.

PFS Attorney Jay Silberg said a determination has not been made as to whether PFS will file a lawsuit on either decision, but that is being reviewed.

"The time has not expired," Silberg said.

PFS did not say much after the bureaus' decisions last year, except that it did not think they meant the end of the project.

Utah Assistant Attorney General Denise Chancellor said just thinking about pursuing a lawsuit is different than filing one, so she is not worried — yet. If PFS does file something, the state will obviously have to look at the case and decide where to go from there but it is too soon to think that far ahead.

The state has exhausted all its options with the commission to try to stop the site, which is why it has turned to the court. It initially filed the lawsuit on Nov. 8, 2005, but did not file its first brief until almost a year later because the license needed to be officially issued and other things had to occur before the case could move ahead.

"We feel like we need to take this through fruition," Chancellor said.

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