PFS Seeks Federal Nuke Waste Involvement
KUTV -2, UT
March 15, 2006
The utility consortium that wants to store nuclear waste on a Utah Indian reservation has asked Congress to consider allowing the Energy Department to become one of its clients and move nuclear waste to Utah, or at least reimburse utilities that choose to use the temporary storage site.
The idea by Private Fuel Storage was an unpleasant surprise to members of Utah's congressional delegation, who doubt it will go anywhere.
``On more than one occasion, the administration has stressed that PFS is not part of the nation's nuclear waste policy,'' Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, told the Deseret Morning News.
Bennett said PFS has repeatedly stressed its independence from the government.
``Now it wants the government to take over. The about-face of this letter demonstrates PFS sees that its options continue to dwindle,'' he said. ``They're grasping for options, but this one won't work, either.''
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said it would be a huge mistake for Congress to introduce any bills that would help PFS and so far no one has indicated they would do so.
``I'm not surprised that PFS is getting very creative in trying to breathe life back into this project,'' Hatch said.
Private Fuel Storage Chairman John Parkyn told Congress in a letter that it would cost less to move waste to Utah than for the government to pay court settlements to utilities that still have waste.
``It would reduce tens of billions of dollars of taxpayers' liability while permitting fuel movement within a three-year period to the only available central interim location currently vetted through the licensing program to ensure safety and security for this large quantity of material,'' Parkyn wrote.
The federal government was supposed to open a permanent federal nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, in 1998. But that project has faced a series of obstacles.
Utilities have sued the government, and in some cases have received millions of dollars, for breaking its promise to take the waste by the 1998 deadline.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued PFS a license to open the temporary nuclear storage site on the Goshutes' Skull Valley reservation last month.
Congress has helped Utah block movement of waste to the site by creating a wilderness area that project opponents believe will prevent transporting waste to the site by rail.
The PFS letter, dated Dec. 13, went to Congress a week after the Supreme Court declined to consider Utah's case against the site and is just making its way to congressional offices now, the News said.
Congress has established a record that waste would not go to PFS with the government's help, according to Scott Parker, chief of staff for Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah.
``The letter appears to have been sent over right about the time Rob and the delegation were successful in creating wilderness to block the rail spur needed to haul in the waste,'' Parker said. ``So this may have just been PFS trying to react in some way to a legislative loss for them and a big victory for Utah. There doesn't appear to be anything new or ground-breaking in the memo.''
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said the bill supported by Utah's and Nevada's congressional delegations to leave waste on site at nuclear power plants until the government can come up with a better disposal policy is a better alternative.
Joe Hunter, chief of staff for Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said getting the department to own the waste before moving it to Nevada is an option worth considering, but PFS's latest proposal is ``a nonstarter.''
``Who owns the waste is irrelevant if the idea is still to store it above ground on a reservation in Utah,'' Hunter said. ``This would appear to be a 'proposal' designed to salvage an ill-advised plan that is rapidly losing ground.''
http://www.kutv.com/topstories/local_story_074172848.html
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