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| February 13th, 2006 |
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Media Contact(s): Peter Carr (202) 224-9854,
Jared Whitley (202) 224-0134 |
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Printable Version |
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HATCH: PFS LICENSE MEANS NOTHING WITHOUT LEASE APPROVAL
Senator Urges Utahns to Continue Fight through BLM Comment Period |
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Washington – Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) today reproached the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for issuing a draft license to Private Fuel Storage to build an aboveground, private spent nuclear waste facility at Skull Valley.
“The NRC’s making an awful decision, but we can’t let it deter us from killing this project once and for all,” Hatch said. “This marks the first time the NRC intends to grant a license for a private, offsite storage site for spent nuclear fuel. That’s a bad precedent, especially since the PFS is clearly not part of the government’s nuclear waste program. This is a dangerous proposal, and I am pulling out all the stops to make sure this waste never makes a home in Utah.”
Last September, the NRC gave initial approval for a license for PFS to store 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel in a private, temporary, aboveground facility at the Reservation of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians. The site is located about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City and adjacent to the Utah Test and Training Range, where live ordnance is used and directly under the low-level flight path of 7,000 F-16s every year. A delay in the NRC’s actual issuance of the license was due to the BLM’s refusal to sign a Memorandum of Agreement, which the National Historic Preservation Act requires must be signed by all relevant agencies before a license is granted.
“The NRC’s decision to bypass the BLM opens this license to one of many legal challenges against the PFS proposal,” Hatch said.
Separate from the NRC's actions, the BLM must grant a right of way for either a rail spur across BLM land to Skull Valley or an intermodal transfer facility on BLM land to transfer the spent fuel to trucks which would transport the casks of spent fuel to the site along existing roads. Responding to Hatch’s request to review the safety and financial viability of the Skull Valley site, the BLM has re-opened the comment period on these rights of way, accepting comments through May 8, 2006. For more information, visit Hatch's nuclear waste page here.
“PFS can’t go forward without Interior signing off on the lease,” Hatch said. “That’s why it’s vital that everyone in Utah write the BLM and make the case that transporting waste to Skull Valley is not in the public’s interest. Every viable transportation option for PFS requires the Administration’s approval, and the BLM is making it very clear that its decision will be based on whether these options are in the public’s interest.”
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