"At the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, there must be panic. The NRC, years ago, was supposed to have been storing high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nev.

But that plan has never gone well. The regulatory process to license the permanent-storage site has lagged behind schedule. Then the opposition to the storage facility -- where the spent nuclear fuel would be stored for 10,000 years -- got a real shot in the arm earlier this year when it was revealed that some of the science had allegedly been falsified to make Yucca appear suitable.

So the NRC, its back against a wall, recently gave the OK to the "temporary" storage in Utah's Skull Valley of 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel rods from nuclear-power reactors across this country. Utah's been fighting the proposed above-ground storage facility for almost a decade, but the NRC and its ally in the effort -- Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear-power utilities who want to get rid of their spent fuel -- have been tenacious. Now all that stands in the way of the waste coming to Utah is a Bureau of Land Management lease to build a rail spur into the Skull Valley site, and a Bureau of Indian Affairs approval of a lease between PFS and the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes tribe."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Saying no to nuclear waste (The Utah Standard-Examiner 9/20)

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Statement:
NRC DENIES UTAH�S FINAL APPEALS, AUTHORIZES STAFF TO ISSUE LICENSE FOR PFS FACILITY (September 9, 2005)

Utah Letter to Norton:
UTAH DELEGATION URGES INTERIOR TO BLOCK SKULL VALLEY SITE (September 9, 2005)

Relevant Links:
Skull Valley Goshute Tribe - http://www.skullvalleygoshutes.org
Private Fuel Storage - http://www.privatefuelstorage.com

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