WASHINGTON -- Nearly 100,000 proposed federal wilderness area acres, designed in part to protect the Utah Test and Training Range, would block Private Fuel Storage's plan to build a railroad to carry nuclear waste through the state if given congressional approval and the president's signature.

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House and Senate negotiators have agreed to include Rep. Rob Bishop's Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area in a massive defense bill. The House and Senate must approve the final version, and the president must sign it before it becomes law.

The proposed protected area includes land where PFS would like to build a railroad to move waste to the proposed storage site on Goshute Indian reservation land in Tooele County's Skull Valley.

Nuclear waste still could be moved via trucks to the proposed Private Fuel Storage site, according to PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin. She had not seen a copy of the final language of the proposed bill, so could not comment specifically.

The state, however, has also vowed to block transport of waste over its highways.

Martin said it is safer to move waste via rail in an area where no one lives, rather than on trucks. She said PFS chose rail as its preferred option if the nuclear waste proposal eventually comes to fruition, but the license application also includes the truck option.

Utah's congressional delegation realizes this does not kill the storage site proposal, but members were still ecstatic the wilderness area language stayed in the bill, saying it is another step toward blocking the PFS project entirely.

"This is a time when this delegation, which may be small in number, proves it can pack a pretty good punch," said Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. "We may only be five, but I think this delegation can get a lot done in this country and in this Congress."

Bishop, a Utah Republican, originally introduced the bill in March and was able to attach it to the House version of the 2006 National Defense Authorization bill. Former Rep. Jim Hansen had originally introduced the idea of using wilderness designation to block PFS before he left Congress.

As Congress tries to wrap up its business for the year, weeks of discussion and intense lobbying, including a personal visit from Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. last week, kept the provision in the defense bill. There was optimism but little certainty, particularly in the past few days, on what the final outcome would be. After a Thursday night meeting with Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., the delegation was relieved to know it would stay.

"We have eliminated the preferable route for the Private Fuel Storage consortium to take a rail spur into Skull Valley," Bishop said. "We have put a big nail in the coffin, but it's not dead yet."

Bishop emphasized that his proposed legislation does not take all of PFS's potential routes away, but that it would slow down the process and "make it more difficult to accomplish."

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said there is still more to do to block PFS, but this is "a significant step forward militarily and environmentally, and we can all rejoice that we find ourselves in the position we are in."

The final language is not identical to what Bishop proposed in March but a good compromise, according to the delegation. It would protect the fly-zone around the southern portion of the Utah Test and Training Range and the land under it.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said it was a "major achievement" just to protect Hill Air Force Base, which operates the range, but he said it was also a "serious blow" to PFS, especially when coupled with the the fact that a financial backer has pulled out and the Bush administration is working against it.

Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said this is a critical moment in the fight against the storage site. "Utah should celebrate, because we are not going to be a dumping ground for nuclear rods," Cannon said.

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which supported Bishop's effort, said that once approved, the new wilderness area would break the 20-year lag since the last time any Utah land received such a designation.

"With the passage of this legislation, not only will Utah get its first new wilderness area in two decades, but Congress will have taken the first significant step in protecting Utahns and other Americans from transportation and storage of this dangerous material," said Lawson LeGate, senior Southwest representative of the Sierra Club.

The delegation said it will continue to work on ways to fight PFS, including getting more companies to drop out of the project and potentially passing legislation that would block PFS's trucking option as well.

E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com