POINT/COUNTERPOINT.

Would Utah Businesses Benefit from High-level Nuclear Waste Dumping

Executive Director, Utah Department of Environmental Quality

NO Dumping high-level nuclear waste in Utah will damage Utah business and Utah's economy.

In measuring the benefits of nuclear waste dumping

According to Private Fuel Storage (PFS), a consortium of electric companies, storage facility expenditures could cost more than $3 billion over 40 years. But what PFS will not be paying for includes:

1) Adequate earthquake design. PFS has asked for a variance from seismic regulations. If the variance comes through, the PFS nuclear storage facility would be built to a seismic standard less stringent than that used for bridges and overpasses on 1-15.

2) Emergency response training. Communities along the nuclear waste transportation route, not PFS, will pay for emergency response training, equipment and impacts to infrastructure.

3) Adequate insurance. PFS and nuclear waste owners could be liable for less than $9.43 billion in accident losses, despite the fact that an accident in transporting nuclear waste in Salt Lake City could cost between $14 and $313 billion.

Other areas critical to Utah's economy that will be impacted by nuclear waste storage include the Utah Test and Training Range and Hill Air Force Base. The storage of high-level nuclear waste at the PFS facility, in the flight path of F-16s entering the Training Range, will not only pose safety concerns about potential aircraft crashes, but will restrict use of the Training Range and impact the military value of Hill Air Force Base.

In addition, a truck or train crash involving high-level nuclear waste on the Interstate 80 and adjacent rail transportation corridor along the south end of the Great Salt Lake would close the corridor, resulting in significant cost and time delays for commerce along this vital east-west transportation route.

Don't be fooled. Nuclear power may be billed as cheap but disposal of the waste is very costly.

SCOTT NORTHARD

Project Manager, Private Fuel Storage

YES Utah businesses can benefit from the high-level nuclear waste industry.

The state of Utah, however, sent a discouraging message to Utah's business community when it passed Senate Bill 81 (SB81), purporting to make it illegal for government or business entities to provide goods or services to companies storing high-level nuclear waste. Threatening violators with $10,000 fines per day and a 75 percent tax on gross proceeds, part of which the state says they need to keep in reserve in case of accidents, is unnecessary. Insurance required by federal law will be sufficient to cover credible accidents.

Senate Bill 81 is unconstitutional and contrary to Utah's business-friendly image. If the state rules that you can't do business with a federally licensed facility, and it imposes punitive fines that would put some firms out of business, what will be next?

The Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians and PFS have filed a lawsuit against the state asking the court to declare SB81 unconstitutional. If they win, so do all Utah businesses.

Proposing a nuclear-waste facility to be built in Skull Valley, Private Fuel Storage (PFS), a consortium of electric companies, alone could spend more than $3 billion over the next 40 years, with most of that money going to Utah businesses. Construction, concrete, steel fabrication, electrical, railway and trucking firms and their employees could also profit.

Cask Manufacturing, the company providing the structures that will store the spent fuel for PFS, is worth more than $1 billion. And steel fabricators certified to handle the specialized, high-quality work demanded by the nuclear industry will be in a good position to win bids for other nuclear work. And proximity to the proposed federal repository in Nevada is a competitive advantage for government contracts.

Fears that the PFS facility will hurt tourism, real estate and the Utah economy are unfounded. One need only visit Charlotte, N.C., where million-dollar homes abut the McGuire Nuclear Plant and waste storage facility, to see that communities and businesses flourish alongside safely managed nuclear operations. The state's exaggerated claims about accident risks pose a greater throat to the Utah economy. To paraphrase Franklin Roosevelt, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."