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From Breaking News Thursday

Utah nuclear waste site may be dead
Interior Department decisions stop nuclear-waste storage plans, Hatch says

Live Journal Posts about Nuclear Waste Issues and Private Fuel Storage

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Green Jenni

From HEAL Utah

This afternoon the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) announced final decisions that effectively prevent Private Fuel Storage’s (PFS) plan to store high-level nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation!

The BLM today issued its decision to deny PFS a right-of-way to transfer and transport nuclear waste to the Skull Valley Goshute reservation. At the same time, the BIA issued their decision to “disapprove the proposed lease.” (It appears the BLM listened to the 5,000 Utahns who submitted letters this past May, including over 1,000 from HEAL Utah members, supporters, and volunteers).

Although the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a license to PFS in February, construction of the facility was contingent on approval from the BLM and the BIA. Today’s combined actions effectively kill the PFS proposal.

Many thanks to all of you who contributed your time, energy, and resources (over the past 9 years!) to prevent this proposal from going through. It appears a campaign that to some extent served as the genesis for HEAL Utah may finally be put to rest. This is a clear example of politicians taking their lead from citizens and public input impacting the decisions of federal agencies.

It’s now simply a matter of seeing whether PFS is willing to make a graceful exit and admit defeat, or whether they will prolong the process by dragging it out in the courts.

But most importantly, many thanks should be given to those members of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes – including Margene Bullcreek and Sammy Blackbear – who are a lesson to us all. Despite living in very difficult economic conditions, those members of the tribe fighting the PFS proposal have had the moral fortitude, courage, and passion to fight for the integrity of their land and the health of their people, rather than selling it to the highest bidder.

Their example should be a lesson to Utah’s policy makers as they decide whether our West Desert will continue to be used as the rug under which the nation’s nuclear and toxic wastes are swept, or whether we will instead work to create clean, healthy communities in which to raise our families.

Victory party to follow!

Vanessa Pierce and John Urgo
HEAL Utah
68 S Main St, Suite 400
SLC, UT 84101
(801) 355-5055
john@healutah.org