Sen. Bob Bennett, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, had language stripped from a House-passed transportation bill Tuesday that would have allowed the department to hire the attorneys “to support legal challenges” over shipments of nuclear material to the private storage facility on the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes Indian reservation.
“The federal government should not be in the business of mounting legal challenges for a privately owned company,” Bennett said.
Robert Johnson, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation admitted the language in the House bill was poorly worded.
"The intentions were good. We wanted to make sure we had the staff available to enforce the regulations," Johnson said. "The problem is the language, as it was written, didn't say that. . . . We're glad it's not going to pass as its written because it was not one of our finer moments."
Johnson said the department would like to work with the Utah senators to try to get back to the original intent and make sure the department gets the staff it needs - in this year's bill, if possible - to ensure any shipments of waste are transported safely.
The language in a report accompanying the House bill noted that the department requested four positions “to support the legal challenges regarding shipments of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to Skull Valley, Utah,” and approved two of the slots. Each would cost about $100,000.
The Utah senators' concern was that the new Transportation Department attorneys would be used to fight any challenges Utah may mount for plans to ship the waste to the state.
The state has said it will go to court if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission grants a license to Private Fuel Storage. The consortium of electric utilities is seeking to store 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel on the Skull Valley reservation 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City until a permanent repository is opened, likely at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
The NRC decision could come by the end of the summer, although PFS has said that shipments are not expected to begin until 2007, at the earliest.
Sen. Orrin Hatch spoke with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card on Tuesday and said he was assured the language that was included in the House bill was not what the administration intended and would not be in the final bill.
Likewise, Bennett said he was assured by White House Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten that the administration supports Utah's efforts to block the waste from coming to the state, and that the administration would not try to resurrect the language before the bill becomes law.
In addition to striking the language, Bennett added a provision in the subcommittee denying “funding for new positions to administer activities related to shipment of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste to a private interim storage facility.”
The full appropriations committee will act on the subcommittee bill Thursday.
