Federal panel rejects Utah´s request in nuclear waste case

May 25 -- Utah has lost another round in its effort to block a temporary nuclear waste repository on one of the state´s Indian reservations.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board on May 24 denied the state´s motion that the board reconsider its Feb. 24 decision on the spent nuclear fuel storage facility proposed for the Skull Valley, Utah, Goshute Indian reservation. The board is an independent arm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

In February, the board rejected the state´s assertion that there was a significant risk of an F-16 jet from nearby Hill Air Force Base crashing into the site and rupturing the inner canister of a nuclear waste storage cask.

Private Fuel Storage LLC, a consortium of eight electric utilities, has entered into a lease agreement with the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians to build a facility to store spent nuclear fuel on the Goshute Indian reservation, about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The company is awaiting licensing from the NRC, which it applied for in June 1997.

The consortium would pay $3.2 billion to construct, operate and decommission the 100-acre facility, which would be located within an 820-acre control area.

Power companies, running short on space to store spent nuclear fuel rods, want to build a temporary storage facility on the reservation. The site would store 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel in a maximum of 4,000 aboveground concrete and steel casks.