WASHINGTON - A bill that creates a wilderness area in Utah's west desert, part of a bid to block a private nuclear waste storage site in the state, is on its way to President Bush to be signed into law. The 100,000-acre Cedar Mountain wilderness area was included in a broader defense bill after months of lobbying by the Utah congressional delegation and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. The Senate passed the bill on a voice vote late Wednesday night, part of a year-end legislative blitz. The wilderness area would hinder the plan by Private Fuel Storage, a group of electric utilities, to build a rail line to deliver the nuclear waste to the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation, although PFS has said it could truck the waste to the planned facility if it has to. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission authorized the license for PFS in September to store 44,000 tons of nuclear fuel on the Skull Valley reservation, although the license has not been issued. Rep. Rob Bishop, who picked up the idea originally pushed by his predecessor, Rep. Jim Hansen, and introduced it in the House, said he was relieved to have it through Congress. "It is something we've championed since my first day here," Bishop said. "This represents the single best legislative impediment to date to the ill-advised plan to bring nuclear waste to Skull Valley. This provision protects the test and training range and creates wilderness the right way." -Robert Gehrke