Nuclear Regulatory Agency OKs Utah waste repository

Sept. 12 -- The Nuclear Regulatory Agency authorized a license for Private Fuel Storage LLC to build and operate a nuclear waste repository in Skull Valley, Utah.

The commission voted 3-1 on Sept. 9 to deny the state of Utah´s final appeal in the matter. The state had argued that one of the 7,000 F-16 military jets flying each year from nearby Hill Air Force Base could crash into the site, causing radioactive contamination.

Private Fuel Storage, 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 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 about 40,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel in a maximum of 4,000 aboveground casks.