Judge orders feds to re-evaluate decision to kill nuclear waste repository on Utah reservation
By APTuesday, July 27, 2010
Feds ordered to revisit nuke storage plan in Utah
SALT LAKE CITY — A judge has thrown out a decision by federal officials to reject a nuclear waste repository on an American Indian reservation in Utah’s west desert.
U.S. District Judge David M. Ebel of Denver ordered the U.S. Department of the Interior to re-evaluate the decision.
Ebel put out a 36-page decision Monday saying the government abused its discretion.
The Skull Valley band of Goshute Indians and a group of nuclear-powered utilities sued three years ago, claiming the Interior Department killed the project under pressure from Utah’s leading politicians.
The Interior Department had rejected plans for a transfer station on federal lands to offload spent nuclear fuel rods as well as a lease for the repository. Ebel ordered a new decision on both counts.
