Hatch's Homeland Security proposal was stopped short Monday night because of objections raised by Reid, D-Nev.

It was the latest instance where the nuclear neighbors have been at odds in their fight to keep the waste out of their own backyards.

Hatch had planned to amend the Energy bill to require completion of the terrorist study before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could grant a license to Private Fuel Storage, the group seeking to store 44,000 tons of nuclear waste in the state.

But Hatch said Reid threatened to bring down the entire Energy bill if Hatch's amendment was included, prompting Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., to ask Hatch late Monday to drop the effort.

"I had the chairmen of both [the House and Senate committees] working with me, and Senator Reid misconstrued it and promised to stop the entire Energy bill if that amendment was attached to it," Hatch said.

Reid's spokeswoman, Tessa Hafen, said the senator never threatened to block the entire Energy bill. Reid had concerns about Hatch's amendment, believing it could encourage other amendments affecting plans for a permanent waste dump in Yucca Mountain, Nev., which Reid is committed to stopping, she said.

"It could have opened up a can of worms as far as nuclear waste issues go," she said.

"His concern has always been about how the waste would be transported, so that's a concern of his, but it needs to be approached the right way," she said. "He just didn't feel that's the right way to do it."

It would not be the first time Reid has scuttled efforts by Utah's delegation to stall or halt the PFS site. In the past two Congresses, he was among senators resisting Utah's efforts to designate the Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area near the Skull Valley reservation.

The wilderness designation would prevent a rail line from being built across the wilderness area to ship nuclear waste to the proposed PFS site.

Some in Utah's congressional delegation have suggested that Reid's opposition was a grudge against Hatch and Sen. Bob Bennett, who voted to send the waste to Yucca Mountain.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, has once again included the wilderness language in a defense policy bill, which has passed the House and is now before the Senate, but Reid again opposes the measure.

"People ask why the Utah delegation doesn't work with Sen. Reid" on nuclear waste issues, Hatch said. "Sen. Reid clearly doesn't have Utah's interests in mind and, in my opinion, America's national security interest, for that matter."

Reid has proposed an alternative to both the Goshute facility and Yucca Mountain. He suggests the Energy Department should store nuclear waste at the facilities that generated it, but he has yet to introduce legislation to make such a policy change.

The NRC is in the final stages of its review before deciding whether to license the PFS site, which would store nuclear fuel in steel and concrete canisters. A decision could come by the end of the summer. The state has vowed to go to court if the license is granted.

Hatch said he would keep working to get the Department of Homeland Security to study the PFS proposal.

"I believe if we're concerned about terrorism, then Homeland Security has to be involved in this, and I'm going to see that they are one way or the other," Hatch said.