DEQ Home > Opposition to High-Level Nuclear Waste
For Immediate Release
From the Office of Utah Congressman Jim Matheson
Second Congressional District
I am sending you my comments regarding the two applications from Private Fuel Storage (PFS) for rights-of-way on public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Tooele County, Utah.
As BLM is aware, PFS intends to build a high-level nuclear waste storage facility on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley, Utah. The company is seeking BLM approval in order to build a rail line or widen a highway, which would stretch across federal land. I have grave concerns about this proposal and I believe that BLM should not approve the PFS applications for a number of reasons.
First of all, BLM officials said in 2005 that agency approval for the rights-of-way would not be given until the Department of Defense (DOD) has studied the impact of any such land-use changes on nearby military facilities. This study is required under Section 2815 of the FY2000 National Defense Authorization Act. To date, DOD has not yet begun its study. Therefore, BLM is prohibited from amending its Pony Express RMP and granting the rail-spur right-of-way until the study is finished.
Second, Congress enacted the FY2006 National Defense Authorization Act in December 2005. This legislation created the Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area, which effectively stopped PFS from obtaining a right-of-way necessary for a northern rail-spur to import waste to the site. This critical legislation also shifted the focus of this project to the alternative, which would involve construction of an intermodal transfer facility on BLM lands. Now that this area has been designed for public use, I fully expect that the public will make good use of the space. With hiking, camping, hunting, and fishing opportunities nearby, Utahns and tourists should not have to worry about the proximity of nuclear waste. Public recreation and the presence of a high level hazardous waste facility are incompatible public land uses.
Third, there are also grave concerns about the proximity of the transfer site to Interstate 80-a major East-West thoroughfare. The intermodal facility would be constructed on land lying in between the existing Union Pacific Railroad and I-80. It is estimated that 100-200 loaded spent nuclear fuel canisters would be shipped annually. After arriving at the transfer point, they would be loaded, by crane, onto huge, oversized semi-trailers. If this application were approved, it would allow oversized slow-moving vehicles to travel a narrow two-lane road to the Skull Valley site, every single day, for 20 years. Yet in the post-September 11th era, no security provisions have been identified by PFS and no known emergency plan is in place in the event of an accident. This would create an unbelievably dangerous environment for public safety officials to monitor appropriately.
Fourth, the license granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) also requires PFS to demonstrate adequate funding before construction would be allowed. At this time, no contracts to store waste at the PFS site have been announced. To the contrary, a number of companies have declared their intention to end participation in the consortium. PFS has not even escrowed funds for clean-up and eventual decommissioning of the transfer facility. Furthermore, the NRC has no regulatory authority over the ITF site and the agency has not looked into possible adverse incidents, which is unbelievable.
Construction of an extremely hazardous facility, next to an enormous military bombing range and a major interstate highway leading to Utah's capitol city, is an inappropriate use of public land and does not comply with BLM management priorities for this transfer site. Continual high level nuclear shipments through Salt Lake City and storage of lethal nuclear waste beside I-80 will present the image of a nuclear waste dumping ground. This will harm Utah's economic prosperity and its important tourism industry. It would run counter to the BLM's own management plans and the interest of the public that BLM serves to grant the right-of-way applications.
Alyson Heyrend, Communications Director
240 East Morris Avenue, #235
South Salt Lake, UT 84115
Phone: 801-486-1236
Cell: 801-455-5593
FAX: 801-486-1417
Revised: November 3, 2009