Standing near the downtown railroad tracks that would carry high-level nuclear waste to a proposed disposal site about 50 miles away, local business and political leaders Friday urged Utahns to tell the federal government to stop the project.
"It is just simply not tolerable," Lane Beattie, president of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, said of the plan by Private Fuel Storage to dump some 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel rods on land owned by the Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indians in Tooele County.
Beattie said allowing the high-level waste to be transported through "the crossroads of the state's transportation system" would hurt Utah's economic development, especially the effort to maintain Hill Air Force Base and other military installations.
He also raised questions about the safety of permitting the materials to be transported through one of the most urban areas of the country, including the possibility the shipments could be targets for terrorists.
Other speakers at a press conference called outside Salt Lake City's new intermodal transportation center near the Rio Grande depot cited concerns about the impact the storage site would have on tourism.
None of the concerns discussed Friday were new. The business community, along with many political leaders, including Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., have long opposed the project. Now, though, the federal government wants to hear what Utahns think.
The Bureau of Land Management is accepting comments through May 8 about an application from PFS for a right-of-way permit on public land that would be necessary to bring the nuclear waste onto the reservation site.
Participants at the press conference said Utahns need to join them in contacting the federal government if they oppose allowing rail lines or roads on public lands to be used to transport the waste.
"This is an essential effort," said Diane Nielson, executive director of the state Department of Environmental Quality. "Every person who cares about the future of Utah must step forward and say, 'No.'"
Sue Martin, a public affairs consultant for PFS, said the issues raised Friday have already been considered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, which ultimately granted PFS a license.
"It puzzles me how our legislators and these business people think they know better," Martin said, labeling the press conference "a politically motivated, knee-jerk reaction — and it is based on fear."
She said PFS has belonged to the Salt Lake Chamber for a number of years and that it was "totally inappropriate for them to take this political stand against one of their own members," particularly since PFS has never been asked to present its position to the organization.
Martin said PFS has "not mounted any big campaign" to get Utahns who support the project to contact the BLM. "We certainly believe very strongly that citizens have a right to express their opinion about PFS to the BLM," she said.
E-mail: lisa@desnews.com