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John Daley ReportingGov. Jon Huntsman: "The most pressing issue facing our state has been resolved."
Is the battle over storing high-level radioactive waste in Utah over? Utah's political leaders say the answer is yes, after a stunning decision today from the federal government.
It's yet another potentially fatal blow today to a plan to store nuclear waste on a Native American reservation west of the Wasatch Front. The Bureau of Land Management has denied a permit to Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear power utilities, to store spent nuclear fuel at the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation near Tooele.
The plan has drawn increasing criticism from the political establishment and citizens, concerned about dangers to human health and the environment. Thousands of Utahns called and sent emails to the BLM urging them to deny the company's permit, though PFS and some members of the tribe have long maintained the transport and storage of the waste would be safe.
Jon Hunstman Jr., Utah Governor "The final decision by the BLM has been made. This is a great day for the state of Utah and a great day for all Utahns."
Senator Hatcha; "As for as I can see it Skull Valley is now stone cold dead."
Hatch says the Interior Department vetoed a lease and also refused to yield federal land where fuel rods would be transferred to trucks from trains. The waste comes from nuclear-power plants.
A spokeswoman for a consortium of utilities says it's too early to say the project is dead.
Vanessa Pierce, the leader of HEAL Utah, a group critical of the plan, says the decision shows, "when citizens work together they have more power than they can imagine."
