Private Fuel Storage has enough money to finance a nuclear waste disposal facility on Goshute tribal lands, but only a handful of people know how much money the consortium of nuclear waste utilities really has.
And the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board isn't saying.
On Tuesday, the board rejected the state's claim that PFS doesn't have enough money to build the facility, operate it and later decommission the above-ground dump proposed for the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indian Reservation, about 75 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
"We are pleased the ASLB has ruled in favor on this issue," said PFS chairman John Parkyn. "We are confident our facility will satisfy a critical industry need for temporary storage. Therefore, I have no doubt we will satisfy the NRC's financial conditions year after year as long as the facility exists and that we will fully decommission as required."
Gov. Mike Leavitt has long argued that support for PFS dissolved when President Bush announced a permanent waste dump at Yucca Mountain. With fewer partners to share the costs, and costs rising with delays, Leavitt has said he didn't think the consortium had the $3.1 billion needed to complete the Skull Valley facility.
Leavitt couldn't be reached for comment by press deadline Wednesday.
The consortium consists of eight nuclear power utilities. Six of them have promised not to participate in the construction of the Goshute facility as long as there are no delays in construction of Yucca Mountain.
PFS has always maintained that the Goshute facility is needed to temporarily store the spent fuel. Each time spent fuel is sent to the facility, the utility that owns it will pay into an external decommission fund that will be used to return the site to its original condition when the Goshute facility is closed.
ASLB, an independent judicial arm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, notified the state, NRC staff and PFS of its decision. But because of private business information about the consortium's finances and other service agreements in the document, it is being withheld from the public.
NRC is removing proprietary information and will release the document to the public at a later time.
The ruling comes at the heels of another victory for PFS. Last week, the ASLB rejected the state's claim that an earthquake could damage or rupture storage casks, causing lethal radioactivity to leak.
But still to be resolved is the board's March 10 decision that denied licensing because of the possibility of an accident involving Air Force fighter jets that train in the same area.
To satisfy those concerns, PFS is seeking to amend its application to limit the size of the facility, from 4,000 upright concrete casks containing spent nuclear fuel to 336 casks. The board plans to consider that request on Thursday in Rockville, Md.
And the board still hasn't ruled on whether a proposed rail line down Skull Valley to serve the facility would compromise wilderness values in the proposed Cedar Mountains wilderness.
PFS is a consortium of nuclear utility companies that pooled resources to license, construct and operate a temporary facility to store spent nuclear fuel for up to 40 years, until the permanent federal repository at Yucca Mountain opens.
In 1997, PFS signed a lease agreement with the Goshute Indians to store the spent fuel on 820 acres of its reservation for the 100-acre facility.
E-MAIL: donna@desnews.com