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WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 2002

Rep. Jim Hansen (R-Utah), chairman of the House Resources Committee, added a provision to the $383 billion defense spending bill that would scuttle plans by Skull Valley Goshute Tribe to store nuclear waste on its reservation.

The provision designates certain lands in Utah as wilderness. This prevents construction of a railroad that would be used to transport waste to the reservation.

Hansen opposes the tribe's site, which would store up to 44,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste, but supports Yucca Mountain in Nevada. When the House approved the Yucca site, he said in a statement on May 10: "Do you want nuclear waste to travel across the state to be buried deep under a mountain in the middle of a high security military installation in Nevada, or do you want nuclear to waste to travel half way across the state to be left out in the open, guarded by a handful of rent-a-cops, underneath a busy military training range?"

The rent-a-cops reference was his response to the tribe's claims of a secure facility.

A joint House-Senate conference committee would have to approve Hansen's provision in order for it to become law.

Get the Story:
Nevada Leaders Bring N-Waste Alert (The Salt Lake Tribune 5/29)
YUCCA MOUNTAIN OPPOSITION: Mayor courts Utah support (The Las Vegas Review-Journal 5/29)
Tribe Offers Up Its Land to Store Nuclear Waste (The Los Angeles Times 5/29)
Username: indianz, Password: indianzcom
Nev. Senator Caught Between a Rock And a Waste Dump (The Washington Post 5/29)

Relevant Links:
Utah Office of High Level Nuclear Waste Opposition - http://www.eq.state.ut.us/HLW/Hlw_opp.htm
Private Fuel Storage Facility Application, Nuclear Regulatory Commission - http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/reports/pfs.htm
Private Fuel Storage - http://www.privatefuelstorage.com
The Skull Valley Goshutes - http://www.skullvalleygoshutes.org

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