The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week signed on new experts to help sort through its technical questions about the proposed Skull Valley nuclear waste storage site. A notice issued Wednesday said the commission would consult with NRC staff experts in risk analysis and engineering. The experts will work for the commissioners in a final review of the project before deciding on the operating license. A consortium of nuclear-plant companies, Private Fuel Storage (PFS), applied to the NRC in 1997 for a license to build an above-ground storage facility for up to 44,000 tons of used nuclear fuel, waste that continues to be highly radioactive. The project, which would be built on the Skull Valley Goshutes reservation in Tooele County, has been under federal review ever since. The Utah state government has been the project's biggest opponent before the NRC and in public. This is the first-ever nuclear waste site that is not located at a nuclear power facility, and the commission is zeroing in on the hardiness of the casks in the event that a jet fighter from Hill Air Force Base crashed into the 100-acre storage pad. Many of the technical questions so far have involved highly complex computer modeling. "From our point of view, this [use of new experts] is good news," said Denise Chancellor, an assistant Utah attorney general working on the case. "It looks like the commission is going to step back and take a good look." There was no word Thursday on whether the added scrutiny would mean a delay in the NRC's decision on a license for PFS. A decision was expected this summer. -Judy Fahys