Plans for Nuclear Dump in Utah Likely Derailed
A controversial plan to store tons of nuclear waste on a Utah Indian reservation seems to have been defeated. For 10 years, the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians has fought for permits for a temporary repository for spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants.
The tribe's leaders saw the plan as a great economic opportunity. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission saw it as a solution to the problem of dealing with the waste that was ultimately destined for the highly-contested Yucca Mountain repository.
But the state of Utah, and some tribal members, fought the idea. Now, the federal government has rejected two key elements of the plan: a lease for the project on reservation land, and access to federal land for delivery of nuclear waste.
Related NPR Stories
A Tribe Split by Nuclear Waste Oct. 21, 2005
Utah Site Gets License for Nuclear Waste Repository Feb. 22, 2006
Utah Governor Tapped to Head EPA Aug. 11, 2003
Goshiute Wilderness May 20, 2002
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