Utah prides itself as being a friendly place for businesses. But 10 companies are about to find out how unfriendly Utah can be.
Gov. Mike Leavitt has fired off warning letters to the chief executive officers and presidents of 10 national utility companies that are considering whether to store some 200,000 spent nuclear-fuel rods in Utah's west desert.The message? "I want to make it clear that they will have opposition every step of the way (if they choose to locate the waste in Utah)," Leavitt said. "And they will have a highly committed opponent."
Leavitt has not received any response on the letter, dated late last month, so he intends to follow up this week with personal telephone calls to each corporate officer.
All are part of a consortium of utility companies that seeks a temporary storage facility for the highly radioactive waste. The Goshute Indians hope to accommodate that waste on Skull Valley Reservation lands about 40 miles west of Salt Lake City.
Leavitt has been an unequivocal opponent of the plan. Last month he stepped up his opposition with letters and telephone calls to federal regulators and members of Congress.
Leavitt hopes to deter the consortium's interest in Utah before the proposal gathers momentum. In addition to the warning, Leavitt appeals to the companies' "instincts of corporate responsibility."
"Corporations of this stature ought to have a sense of corporate responsibility that would prohibit them from putting 4,000 casks of 200,000 rods of lethally hot radioactive fuel rods - rods that will remain that way for 10,000 years - only 40 miles from a major metropolitan area," Leavitt told the Deseret News.
According to the letter, "By pursuing a course specifically designed to eliminate the state of Utah's ability to participate in any decisionmaking, oversight or even meaningful communication regarding the project, the utilities send a message that the opinions of the people of Utah need not be considered. This is an interesting position in light of Utah's vibrant growth rate and the apparently imminent deregulation of the electric utility industry."
The letter was addressed to corporate officers of utility companies in New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Alabama, New Jersey and California.