Energy bill doesn't include ban on N-fuel shipments
Language of the energy act approved
by the Senate on Tuesday did not include an amendment proposed by Utah senators
Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett that would have banned the shipment of spent nuclear
fuel to a non-federal facility.
The amendment was intended to block a consortium of nuclear power utilities
from shipping waste to Goshute tribal lands in Tooele County.
Hatch and Bennett withdrew their amendment, having received an on-the-record
statement from the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Pete Dominici,
that the Goshute storage plan was not part of the nation's nuclear waste strategy.
The commitment was vital, Hatch said, because he did not consider Dominici
to be "friendly" to Utah's opposition to the waste.
Pulling the amendment was a strategic move that lays the groundwork for Hatch
and Bennett to start working the other senators on the fact the Goshute storage
plan is not part and parcel to the Yucca Mountain permanent storage site
supported by the White House and a majority of senators.
"A large majority of senators support Yucca Mountain and a large number associate
Skull Valley with Yucca Mountain," Hatch said. "We are trying to create a
disconnect (between the two sites). The two issues are not connected; Skull
Valley is not part of our national waste strategy."
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