Contact: Emily Christensen, 202-224-5444, Washington, DC 20510 |
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 07, 2006 |
Bennett Hails News That PFS Loses Final Push to Bring Nuclear Waste to Utah
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Bob Bennett received the good news today that the Bureau of Land Management has denied Private Fuel Storage (PFS) – a consortium of eight electric power generating companies – the right of way to transport high-level nuclear waste to Skull Valley and the Bureau of Indian Affairs has denied the lease for a nuclear waste storage facility on Indian trust lands.
“This is tremendous news for the state,” said Bennett (R-Utah). “It reassures all Utahns today and those in generations to come that high-level nuclear waste will not be sent to Skull Valley.”
Bennett added, “For years the entire delegation has urged the Department of Interior to take this action. I raised this issue with Secretary Kempthorne prior to his confirmation last spring and stressed the importance of it to our state. I am delighted with his prompt response. This ends any possibility that the Goshute facility will ever be used for the storage of high-level nuclear waste.”
Below is a list of actions taken by Sen. Bennett to help eliminate the PFS proposal:
- Supported language in the Fiscal 2007 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill that will give the secretary of energy the authority, in consultation with the governor of the state containing a civilian nuclear power reactor, to consolidate commercial spent nuclear fuel at a separate, federally-owned facility within that state or region. However, the language prohibits the secretary from storing spent nuclear fuel in any state where a commercial, dry cask storage facility is authorized. Utah is excluded from consideration because it does not have a nuclear power reactor and because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted a license for the PFS facility in Skull Valley.
-
- Led by Congressman Rob Bishop, the Utah congressional delegation last December passed legislation that blocked potential attempts to build a rail spur on federal lands near the range and the Goshute reservation, thus hampering the nuclear waste storage facility from being built.
-
- Stripped language in the House-passed Fiscal 2006 transportation spending bill that included funding for two federal attorneys designated to handle legal challenges arising from proposed shipment of spent nuclear waste to Skull Valley. Also added language to the Senate bill stating the committee “denies funding for new positions to administer activities related to shipment of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to a private interim storage facility.”
-
- Joined with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in 2002 to get a commitment from nearly every CEO in the nuclear industry to not pursue the PFS site past the licensing phase as long as Yucca Mountain was on track.
-
- Received a letter from Energy Secretary Abraham in 2002 indicating that federal funds would not be used to facilitate PFS and that PFS was not part of the national spent nuclear fuel storage strategy.
# # #
http://bennett.senate.gov/