By Laura Hancock
Deseret Morning News

OREM — Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., incorrectly believe sending nuclear waste to Nevada will keep it out of Utah, says Rep. Jim Matheson said.

Jim Matheson

And Yucca Mountain's proximity will only prime the Beehive State as a potential waste site in the future, according to Matheson, D-Utah, who spoke Monday at Utah Valley State College.

Matheson, who made the comments during a Town Hall-style meeting, said he opposes all forms of nuclear testing.

Matheson recently introduced a bill that will make it difficult for the federal government to resume military experiments at the Nevada Test Site, where about 1,000 nuclear tests from 1951-1992 released substances into the air that have been attributed to cancer and deaths of people "downwind" from the location, mostly in Utah and northern Arizona.

Matheson's bill will prohibit testing until the government does an environmental-impact statement, he said.

The bill also requires radiation-monitoring equipment throughout the United States.

Testing is set to resume as soon as President Bush OKs it, Matheson said, but his bill will require a vote from Congress, too.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, has introduced a similar bill in the Senate.

"The fight continues, and I will continue to do that as long as it takes. That's sort of my No. 1 issue right now," said Matheson.

Utahns face danger to safety and economic development if the eight utilities that make up Private Fuel Storage successfully obtain licensing to store spent nuclear fuel rods on the Goshute lands in Tooele County, Matheson said.

The state could intervene by assisting the Goshutes with their economic needs so the tribe would not lease its land to PFS.

Matheson hopes Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. will talk with Goshute leaders.

Congress could intervene by designating the Bureau of Land Management terrain in the area as wilderness to prohibit moving anything over it, but Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, tried attaching such a measure on a defense bill, and it failed, Matheson said.

Interior Secretary Gail Norton could intervene as trustee of the Goshute lands, but Matheson does not have much faith she will act unless directed by the White House.