Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Thursday he does not support dumping the nation's radioactive waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain - a position that separates the new governor from Utah's two U.S. senators.

At his monthly KUED press conference Thursday, Huntsman acknowledged he does not like the idea of shipping spent nuclear fuel rods cross-country - and across Utah - from power plants in the east to the concrete bunker in the desert outside Las Vegas. Instead, the governor believes Congress should adopt a national storage policy that favors keeping casks of nuclear waste where they are.

"I don't think there's any reason we should be in the transportation and storage of this material," Huntsman said.

"Even if we did Yucca Mountain, we wouldn't be able to store all of [the nuclear waste] we have to be stored today. You're just looking at a very temporary solution," he added. "Why do we keep going from one temporary solution to another?"

The governor said he plans to meet with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, next week to discuss the issue. Reid will speak April 1 at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics.

Three years ago, Reid openly chastised Utah Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch after they voted to open Yucca Mountain, saying it would head off Private Fuel Storage's plans to temporarily store 44,000 tons of nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Tooele County until Yucca is completed. The two continue to push Yucca as an alternative to the utility consortium's efforts to store the spent fuel in above-ground casks in Utah.

Bennett spokeswoman Mary Jane Collipriest did not return a call for comment Thursday.

While Huntsman did not criticize Utah's senators - who "were put in a very delicate situation" - the governor said having Reid as an ally could help the state stop PFS' plans.

"We can find allies on both sides of the issue," he said. "It's helpful to be of one mind and one voice in this situation."

Highlights of the governor's news conference:

l Defended firing the state's top utility watchdog, Utah Committee of Consumer Services Director Roger Ball, as the prerogative of any governor to replace his or her predecessor's political appointees. He insists the selection of Ball's replacement, former telephone company lobbyist Leslie Reberg, will be "subject to a very open and transparent process. . . . All I'm looking for is a new person with a fresh set of eyeballs to do what we think is best for the consumer," he said.

l Said he is considering putting some of Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson's ideas for reducing greenhouse gases into place in state government, including adjusting heating and lighting in state buildings.

l Noting "abuses" of redevelopment law, explained that he signed a controversial moratorium on city and county redevelopment projects to establish a one-year "cooling-off period," giving legislators time to draft "better RDA policy."

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