Utah Tribe Divided Over Nuclear Waste

A state sign, riddled by shotgun blasts, stands along the highway leading to the Goshute Indian Tribe reservation in Skull Valley, Utah, Wednesday, May 3, 2006. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac) (Douglas C. Pizac - AP)

"We have to store this stuff somewhere," says the group's chairman, John Parkyn. The utilities "were promised this material would be collected and removed to a central location, and now we have one."

If Bear and Parkyn get their way, the project will mark a watershed in addressing the thorniest problem facing the nuclear industry: where to put nearly 60,000 tons of highly radioactive reactor waste now stored at power plants in 31 states, and the additional 2,000 tons being generated each year.

The government promised to take the waste beginning in 1998. But a planned federal site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is years behind schedule. Some people say it may never be built.

The PFS consortium has spent more than $20 million so far, including licensing costs and payments to the Skull Valley tribe under its 1997 lease.

Not a single utility has committed to send waste to Utah, and four of the companies that helped finance the project have said they will not commit any more money as long as Yucca Mountain moves forward.

If Yucca Mountain encounters more hurdles and delays, utilities will turn to Skull Valley, Parkyn predicted in an interview.

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The consortium has spent more than $20 million. Neither Bear nor the utilities will say how much of that the tribe has received or will get over the next 40 years if the deal goes through. Speculation is that the total could be as much as $100 million for the tribe.

Still, it's hard to find people in Utah who favor the dump.

"You're batting in the 85 percent range of people who don't want this project to go forward. As conservative as the state is, you don't even see those kind of percentages in things like gay marriage," says Jason Groenewold, director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, which opposes the project.

The state has tried all manner of maneuvers to stop the project, with little success so far. The Legislature imposed steep taxes on anyone doing business with the consortium and banned local governments from providing electricity and other services. The laws were declared unconstitutional by a federal court.

Utah's senators have lobbied the Bush administration. So far, administration officials have said only that they remain committed to opening Yucca Mountain _ 350 miles south of Skull Valley _ and that the tribal project is not part of the government's nuclear waste plan.