June 18, 2006

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Comments Pour in on Hot-Waste Plan
By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News, UT
June 14, 2006

More than 7,000 comments have flooded into offices of the Bureau of Land Management about whether to allow construction of facilities needed by Private Fuel Storage for keeping high-level nuclear waste.

But don't expect a BLM decision soon on the plans to build a nuclear-waste storage facility in Skull Valley. In fact, forget about rulings from any federal officials or courts before the end of this year.

The BLM's public comment period ended May 8 on two competing proposals to get radioactive fuel from a rail line to the Goshute Indian reservation, where PFS wants to build the storage plant. The proposals are to build a railroad spur or to construct an intermodal facility where huge protective casks would be lifted from train cars and loaded onto trucks for the 26-mile drive to the reservation.

When Congress and President Bush approved the Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area, blocking the railroad spur, that option apparently became moot. But the proposal technically remains on the books, as is the alternative plan to build an intermodal facility.

BLM experts have been tallying comments since May 8.

"We really haven't finished our analysis yet," said Glenn Carpenter, district manager of the BLM's Salt Lake District. Some comments are still "straggling in," he said, although the agency is marking them as late. If a late comment contains consequential information, the BLM may consider it, he said.

Asked how many comments have arrived, Carpenter said, "My guess is in excess of 7,000."

BLM officials are not going to make a decision on the proposals in the near future, he said. "Our decision will follow that of the Bureau of Indian Affairs."

The BIA is involved because the agreement between the Goshutes and PFS must receive the bureau's approval before the project can go forward. Carpenter speculates that the BIA won't rule until a pending court case is decided. A BIA public relations officer in Washington, D.C., did not return a telephone call seeking comment Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed by the state of Utah against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, challenges the NRC's decision to license the repository. The case is pending before the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

"I think the result of that lawsuit is one of the things that will be influencing decisions subsequent to that," Carpenter said. "It's not really good practice to put into position decisions which might be in conflict with the court's decisions."

Denise Chancellor, an assistant Utah attorney general who is handling legal issues involving PFS, said she does not know when the case will be heard by the D.C. appeals court.

"We had expected to get what's called a briefings schedule," she said Tuesday, "and we've received nothing yet from the courts."

After a schedule is set, the parties will go through a lengthy process before the court hears the lawsuit. The state will file a brief, the NRC and PFS will file their own interpretations, and then reply briefs will be filed.

The next step is for the court to take the matter under consideration. That will be followed by oral argument and further consideration until a decision is issued.

When will the court rule?

"My guess would be we wouldn't expect to see anything this year," Chancellor said. If the losing party appeals, that could add another lengthy process.

If the appeals court happens to agree with a ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, San Francisco, that the NRC improperly brushed aside concerns about terrorism in a similar controversy, "then it would go back to the NRC" for further consideration, she added.

E-mail: bau@desnews.com

http://deseretnews.com/dn/print/1,1442,640186870,00.html