SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's congressional delegation on Tuesday blasted a decision by a federal judge relating to a proposed nuclear waste repository in the state's western desert.

U.S. District Judge David M. Ebel of Denver ordered the U.S. Department of the Interior to re-evaluate the decision to reject a nuclear waste repository on an American Indian reservation.

Ebel put out a 36-page decision Monday saying the government abused its discretion.

The Skull Valley band of Goshute Indians and a group of nuclear-powered utilities sued three years ago, claiming the Interior Department killed the project under pressure from Utah's leading politicians.

The Interior Department had rejected plans for a transfer station on federal lands to offload spent nuclear fuel rods as well as a lease for the repository. Ebel ordered a new decision on both counts.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, called it "a procedural decision, not a decision on the merits of the Goshute site being suitable for high-level waste" and said he is thankful that the decision doesn't clear the way for the project to move forward.

"Putting this facility next to a bombing range doesn't make sense now, and it never will," Bishop said. "And one judge can't change that. I've always said this was a long-term fight, and as long as the license existed, we needed to be vigilant."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said, "We have already laid down a gauntlet of obstacles to any company that would think of building this facility, and we will continue to man the barricades and put up new ones at every opportunity."

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Hatch said every member company of Private Fuel Storage but one has already backed away, in writing, from the company's plan.

"The plain, simple fact is that we will never allow this facility to be built," Hatch said.

The other three members of Utah's delegation — Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah; Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah; and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah — said they, too, are united in blocking nuclear waste from coming to Skull Valley.

Contributing: Joseph M. Dougherty, Deseret News

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