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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Moving nuclear waste to a private storage facility proposed for a Utah Indian reservation is not part of the government's plans right now, an Energy Department spokesman told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The department has received a letter in which Private Fuel Storage, a group of utilities proposing to build the storage site, suggests the department become one of its clients, said the spokesman, Craig Stevens. But the department is sticking to its original plans to open a federal repository in Nevada, he said.
"We are committed to licensing, constructing and opening Yucca Mountain," Stevens said.
The letter from Private Fuel Storage is dated Dec. 13, 2005, but is just now making its rounds on Capitol Hill.
In it, PFS chairman and CEO John Parkyn suggests to several members of Congress that the government could save billions of dollars by joining the consortium, or by reimbursing utilities that store their waste at the site.
PFS wants to store 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel above ground on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation about 50 miles from Salt Lake City.
It won a 20-year license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this year despite loud objections from Utah's state and federal lawmakers, who fear storing waste so close to a major city is unsafe.
But the license was granted just as several of the utilities that make up PFS announced they were no longer interested in the project. To begin construction, the company must prove to the NRC that it has enough money to go forward.
The facility was planned to be an interim storage site until the federal government opened Yucca Mountain.
Yucca Mountain is still years away from operating, however, and the government still faces many hurdles before it will open.
In his letter, Parkyn said moving waste to PFS's site would be cheaper, safer and more practical than storing it in several locations across the country.
"This is a solution now," Parkyn wrote. "A great opportunity exists for the federal government."
But Utah's lawmakers are not pleased with the idea.
"I think it would be a huge mistake for any of (the lawmakers who received the letter) in the House or the Senate to introduce legislation to help PFS," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement. "I have no indication that they would be favorable to doing so."
PFS is still seeking approval from several federal agencies to be able to open its site. Congress also created a federal wilderness area near the PFS site that opponents hope will block movement of nuclear waste there by rail.
Hatch has spoken with Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman about the project before, and plans to meet with him again soon, Hatch's spokesman Peter Carr said Wednesday.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
