Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett's 45-minute meeting with Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove ended without a firm commitment on specific steps the White House would take to help stop the Skull Valley site, which would be built by Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of eight electric utilities.

But Bennett said there is agreement between the senators and the administration that there should not be temporary storage.

"They are committed to a strategy of straight to Yucca. Straight to Yucca means not stopping in Skull Valley," Bennett said.

A prominent part of their argument - and one where the Bush administration could play a role - is that 40,000 tons of nuclear waste sitting on concrete pads on the Skull Valley reservation of the Goshute Indian tribe would pose a "significant terrorist target," he said.

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn't take that into account. The White House very much does, so they will be looking for ways to inject the homeland security issue into the overall equation," Bennett said.

"They know Yucca Mountain is the ultimate goal here," said Hatch. "It's what has to be done under the circumstances and we're going to do everything to help them get there."

White House spokesman Taylor Gross said he couldn't comment on the substance of the meeting with the senators, "however the president's position is well-known. The president believes there should be a permanent repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain."

PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin welcomed Hatch and Bennett's endorsement of Yucca Mountain.

"We have said all along that if Yucca Mountain had been on schedule, then there would not be a need for this facility at all," she said. "I think I can speak for all of our PFS members that we would be very pleased if the Utah delegation and the White House could make sure that Yucca Mountain gets the funding it needs and the other support it needs to move forward as quickly as possible."

Still, she said, as a practical matter, it is likely that some of the plants in the PFS group will need off-site storage before Yucca Mountain could be completed, so the Skull Valley facility remains necessary as "a stopgap measure."

Bennett and Hatch voted for the Yucca Mountain plan in 2002 after another meeting at the White House where they were assured by then-Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that supporting Yucca was the best way to guarantee that the Skull Valley site would be unnecessary.

The stance of Bennett and Hatch puts them in direct conflict with Nevada's delegation, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

"Senator Reid has said repeatedly that he doesn't believe Yucca Mountain will ever open and they are years behind deadline now," said Reid's spokeswoman, Tessa Hafen. He has not taken a stance on the Skull Valley site, but "he is concerned about transporting nuclear waste so he has that same concern for our neighbors to the east."

Work on Yucca Mountain has been repeatedly delayed and it is unknown when or if it will be complete. Bush is seeking $650 million for the project in the coming budget year, but that is substantially less than was projected a year ago.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, has blamed Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., for blocking his legislation that would create a wilderness area around the Skull Valley reservation to prevent a rail line from servicing the PFS site. He has said it is essentially payback for Bennett and Hatch voting to build Yucca Mountain.

Hatch said he doesn't blame Nevada's senators for opposing Yucca Mountain, but that is what Congress has decided should be done. And he downplayed the potential that the matter could turn into a battle of which state has the most clout.

"I don't think it comes down to politics," he said. "I think it comes down to doing what's right."