WASHINGTON - Utah's two senators want a study of how to make retreat mining safer and Rep. Jim Matheson is seeking better communications systems in the aftermath of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster that killed six miners and three would-be rescuers.

Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch introduced an amendment to the spending bill for the Health and Human Services and Labor departments that would authorize a $1 million examination of the type of mining used at the rural Utah mine where the miners remain entombed.

The amendment, if approved, would ask the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to partner with the University of Utah and West Virginia University to look at how retreat mining more than 1,500 feet underground is used and how to make it more safe. That method of mining involves removing pillars of coal holding up the roof of the mine and letting the ceiling collapse.

"After the tragic events at the Crandall Canyon Mine this summer it became clear that more information was needed about deep mining operations," Bennett said in a statement. "It is my hope that this study will provide a thorough examination and come up with ways to make it safer for everyone involved."

Hatch offered up a separate amendment as well to study the effect of the closure of the Western Mining Technology Center in 2000 and whether the center should be reopened.

Hatch says both amendments would serve to add more facts to the debate about what to do in the wake of the Crandall Canyon tragedy.

"It is my goal to ensure that deep mining like the kind we do in Utah is done in as safe a way as possible," Hatch said. "And for that, we simply need more research."

Both amendments are expected to be debated next week as the Senate takes up the spending bill.

Meanwhile, Matheson, D-Utah, introduced legislation Thursday that seeks to bolster efforts to develop a wireless communication system to track and communicate with miners in deep mines. Without the tracking system in place, rescuers had to guess where in the Crandall Canyon mine the trapped miners might have been.

The Miner Act, passed after a series of mine disasters last year, requires a wireless, two-way communication system, or the best technology available, to be installed in mines beginning in 2009.

Matheson's bill seeks to boost the efforts. It directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to set up a program to develop the "next generation" in mine tracking and communications systems.

The legislation, which will be the subject of a House Science Committee hearing on Wednesday, directs NIST to work with the Mine Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

The miners at Crandall Canyon were equipped with a system known as the Personal Emergency Device, or PED, which allows messages to be sent to the miners. Messages were sent in the days following the accident, but it is likely the antenna relaying the signal was destroyed by the collapse.

The Matheson bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah.

tburr@sltrib.com