May 15, 2006

• What's New?
• Upcoming Events
• Action Alerts
• Documents
• Who We Are
• Corbin Harney
• Staff
• Contact Info

Sponsor Denies N-Dump Funds Bill is for Skull Valley
By Robert Gehrke
Salt Lake Tribune, UT
May 12, 2006

WASHINGTON - Plans to build a temporary nuclear waste storage facility would get a $30 million boost under a spending bill moving through the House.
   

But the sponsor said Thursday he won't send the waste where it's not wanted.
   

"I'm not forcing this on anyone. I would not put this into a community that isn't willing to accept it," said Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee.
   

In the past, Utah's delegation has been comfortable that Hobson is not looking at interim storage with Private Fuel Storage - a company that has received a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to store waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation. And Rep. Rob Bishop remains confident the Utah plan is not in play.
   

"There's no doubt Utah falls into that category. But we will always keep a watchful eye on anything that could indirectly or unintentionally help PFS and will do everything we can to stop any potential threat in that regard," said Scott Parker, Bishop's chief of staff.
   

Vanessa Pierce, program director at the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, said the group is uneasy with the push for temporary storage.
   

"We're skeptical the $30 million for interim storage wouldn't target Skull Valley. With its NRC license, PFS is the only game in town, and that's why we're counting on Senator [Bob] Bennett to cut this money when it gets to his committee in the Senate," Pierce said.
   

Before interim storage could become a reality, Congress would have to change the law, which currently forbids temporary storage by the government. Hobson said he is hopeful that can be worked out.
   

"I'm trying to move this country forward on nuclear energy. I don't think we can do it without" interim storage, Hobson said. If a permanent waste dump at Yucca Mountain, Nev., is going to continue to be delayed, other options need to be considered, he said.
   

"This country is so far behind in developing this reliable nuclear energy," he said. "We are still living 40 years ago in our total approach to nuclear power."
   

In December, PFS asked Hobson and other leaders in Congress to consider directing the Energy Department to contract with the company to store 40,000 tons of waste, at a cost of $60 million annually.
   

Under law, the government is required to store the waste, but has been unable to do so because of delays in building Yucca Mountain. That has subjected the department to an estimated $500 million a year in liability.
   

The committee has asked the Energy Department for its input on the proposal, but has not received a response, Hobson said.
   

The Energy and Water spending bill also dealt a blow to President Bush's push to recycle nuclear waste, approving $96 million less than had been sought for the president's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.
   

Hobson said he still is not comfortable with the cost, the technology or the assurances that the process will not produce weapons-grade material.
   

"I think we are jumping too fast into this program," he said, although he remains supportive of the concept of recycling nuclear waste.

http://www.sltrib.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3813558