Utah tribe's nuclear waste plan dealt big setback
TUESDAY, MARCH 11,
2003
http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/03/11/goshute
In a major victory for the state of Utah, federal regulators on Monday
blocked plans to store up to 44,000 tons of nuclear waste on the Skull
Valley Goshute Reservation.
Citing potential risks from a nearby military base, the Atomic Safety
and Licensing Board ruled against a consortium of eight private companies
known as Private Fuel Storage (PFS). The group wants to ship radioactive
material to the reservation with the tribal chairman's consent but three
administrative law judges said it was possible that an airplane might
crash into the waste repository.
"[W]e find that there is enough likelihood of an F-16 crash into the
proposed facility that such an accident must be deemed 'credible,'"
Michael C. Farrar, chairman of the three-judge panel, wrote in the 220-page
document. "The result is that the PFS facility cannot be licensed without
that safety concern being addressed."
The decision by the board, an independent judicial arm of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC), is not final and can be appealed. PFS was
also given the option of convincing the Air Force to modify its flight
patterns or demonstrating that the casks being used to store the highly
radioactive fuel can withstand a plane crash.
But since the Secretary of the Air Force has indicated that changes
are unlikely and PFS has yet to offer evidence on the second scenario,
Utah officials and politicians took the decision as a win.
"I just don't think PFS has adequately addressed safety and security
concerns involving this facility," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), one
of the many opponents. "Frankly, I question whether they will ever be
able to ensure that the proposed site will be safe to store nuclear
waste, considering the location."
The tiny tribe, which has less than 200 members, has been thrust in
the national spotlight ever since chairman Leon Bear signed a lease
with PFS to accept the waste. Terms of the agreement, which has been
approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, are not known but could be
a financial windfall for the reservation, where unemployment runs as
high as 70 percent.
The facility would occupy a small portion of the tribe's 18,000-acre
reservation, where fewer than 50 live today. The site, however, is about
45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, prompting fears of spills, accidents
and plane crashes.
Up until the crash issue was considered, regulators rejected most
objections raised. Terrorist threats weren't evaluated specifically
for the PFS site but by the NRC in general, the board noted in its ruling.
Some members of the tribe oppose the repository. The NRC refused to
get involved in the dispute The BIA played the role of a mediator when
rival factions, one against the site, claimed power but Bear eventually
resumed power.
PFS said it was "disappointed" with the decision. One of the companies
involved is Xcel Energy, which operates a nuclear facility next to the
Prairie Island Indian Community in Minnesota. Xcel is seeking permission
to keep more waste on site, a request the tribe opposes.
Federal law mandates that the federal government accept waste from
the nation's nuclear facilities. Yucca Mountain in Nevada, located on
traditional Western Shoshone land not ceded by treaty, is destined to
be the single repository but won't open until at least 2010. Area tribes
oppose that project along with officials and politicians in Nevada.
Get the Decision:
In the Matter of PRIVATE FUEL STORAGE, LLC, Docket No. 72-22-ISFSI (March
10, 2003)
http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/regulatory/adjudicatory/pfs-decision.pdf
Relevant Links:
Skull Valley Plan Rejected
BY JUDY FAHYS THE
SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Mar/03112003/utah/37162.asp
Rejecting the idea that storing deadly nuclear waste can be safe while
jet fighters loaded with bombs and missiles zip overhead daily, the
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board on Monday grounded plans for storing
spent nuclear fuel in Skull Valley.
"We find that there is enough likelihood of an F-16 crash into the
proposed facility that such an accident must be deemed 'credible,' "
the three-member panel of administrative law judges ruled. "The result
is the [proposed] facility cannot be licensed without that safety concern
being addressed."
The ruling was a long-awaited victory for the state of Utah, which
has spent more than $2 million fighting a storage facility proposed
for the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation by a consortium of out-of-state
utility companies called Private Fuel Storage (PFS).
"What they essentially said is, F-16s and high-level waste just don't
mix," said Gov. Mike Leavitt, perhaps the staunchest critic of the Goshute-PFS
plan.
The consortium, whose attorneys are only beginning to leaf through
the 222-page ruling, had not decided by late Monday whether to fight
the ruling or how to do so.
"While we are disappointed with this initial partial decision, we
continue to believe that our facility meets the federal regulations,"
said PFS project manager Scott Northard. "We will review the board's
ruling to determine if and how we may address their concerns."
Neither PFS nor the governor would say the ruling stops the $3.1 billion
project, pitched as a temporary solution for nuclear waste stored at
more than 100 U.S. power plants. There are a number of ways the proposal
could still go forward:
-
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) could overrule the
licensing board decision, as it has on several other points of contention
regarding the PFS-Skull Valley project.
-
PFS could successfully appeal the ruling.
-
PFS could update its license application and prove that, even if
a jet fighter did crash into the steel-and-concrete casks holding
the waste, the casks would release no dangerous radiation.
The strength of the casks and the likelihood of crashes were central
questions examined by the licensing board during nine weeks of hearings
last spring and summer.
The PFS-Goshute plan calls for putting up to 4,000 casks -- filled
with 10.4 million used nuclear-plant fuel rods -- on a 3-foot slab of
soil and concrete that covers about 100 acres of the desert floor. The
casks would be above ground and untethered for up to 40 years, and the
facility would be big enough to hold nearly all the spent fuel ever
produced by the U.S. nuclear power industry.
A few miles away is the biggest missile-and-bomb testing range and
the largest pilot-testing region in the nation -- the Utah Test and
Training Range. F-16s cross Skull Valley while traveling between the
southern range, which is roughly the size of New Jersey, and Hill Air
Force Base, where many Air Force pilots come for training.
Project proponents said the storage casks would withstand even earthquakes
without tipping over or cracking.
But others have long doubted the wisdom of storing the waste on the
important flight path.
During a briefing last year on the prospect of locating a nuclear
waste facility next to a test-bombing range, Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld reportedly said: "Who would be stupid enough to do that?"
Over the summer, Gerald Pease, associate director for ranges and airspace
at the Pentagon, gave the military's only official statement on the
Skull Valley project. He said in an affidavit to the licensing board
that the Pentagon had "no position" but that it would be "unacceptable"
to impede work at the training range.
"The Air Force interest is to ensure continued testing and training
activities at this vital facility," Pease said. "Therefore, the Air
Force opposes any restriction that might result from the siting of the
proposed PFS facility."
The state said limits on the range would have an enormous impact on
the state, especially the 22,000 jobs and $2.1 billion associated with
Hill.
The licensing board, made up of two scientists and a lawyer, took
days' worth of testimony to examine why the state insisted licensing
the facility was a bad idea and also to hear why PFS and the NRC staff
expressed confidence that the risk of an accidental crash was so small
it did not need to be studied.
In effect, the ruling came down to a mathematical calculation by the
NRC staff that 90 percent of the time a jet fighter pilot could steer
a faltering F-16 away from the nuclear waste containers. Without that
"pilot avoidance" factor, PFS and the NRC staff could not prove an essential
requirement of federal nuclear licensing rules -- that the chance of
an accident is less that 1 in 1 million.
Licensing board members pored over detailed reports of nearly five
dozen F-16 crashes. They insisted on having F-16 pilots who have crashed
-- and survived -- talk about the extreme pressure pilots face as they
try to keep control of jets heading into the ground.
Former Hill AFB pilot instructor Hugh Horstman told the board how
weather, an F-16's cramped cockpit, the imminent danger and pilot judgment
make it hard to say that pilots really could steer a jet away from a
catastrophe such as careering into the nation's stockpile of nuclear
waste.
Horstman, whose testimony helped make the state's case, showed board
members a video that put them next to the pilot during the cockpit chaos
of a 1996 crash. Delighted by Monday's ruling, he predicted "an indefinite
delay" in the PFS-Goshute license.
"The data does not support their claim," he said.
Other critics of the PFS-Goshute plan joined in applauding the ruling,
but all of them remain watchful.
"This is good news for now," said Margene Bullcreek, a Goshute opposed
to the storage facility even though the project promises to bring millions
of dollars to the impoverished Skull Valley tribe.
U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett called on the five-member NRC to uphold the
licensing board's decision.
"Perhaps we can now move forward in an expeditious manner to address
this problem," said the Utah Republican. "President Bush has designated
and the Congress has approved Yucca Mountain as the most logical location
for storage of this waste."
U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said, "I suspect this battle is not
yet over, and it is imperative that we continue to make clear our concerns
about so-called temporary and above-ground spent fuel storage in Utah."
fahys@sltrib.com
Get the Decision:
In the Matter of PRIVATE FUEL STORAGE, LLC, Docket No. 72-22-ISFSI (March
10, 2003) http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/regulatory/adjudicatory/pfs-decision.pdf
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