And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Subject: Utah To Discourage Nuke Waste Plan Sent: 3/18/99 2:51 PM Utah To Discourage Nuke Waste Plan .c The Associated Press By KRISTEN MOULTON SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Gov. Mike Leavitt, trying to discourage eight power companies from storing nuclear waste at an Indian reservation in Utah, signed a bill Thursday requiring the utilities to shoulder full liability in case of an accident. The law strips the utilities, their officers and shareholders of a limited legal shield offered to some companies as a way of encouraging business development. It also requires the governor and the Legislature to approve rights of way used to carry the waste to the planned temporary storage facility on the Skull Valley Indian Reservation in Utah's west desert, 40 miles west of Salt Lake City. ``We think this is an appropriate thing, given that we have made it perfectly clear we don't want this waste here,'' Leavitt said. ``If it's so safe, why don't they just keep it where it is?'' The 135-member Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians is split over a proposal to build the facility. Spent radioactive rods from power plants would be taken there to await shipment to a permanent storage site yet to be picked by Congress. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to make a final decision on the plan in 2001. Utah officials have agreed to fund a lawsuit by tribal members opposed to the plan. Sue Martin, a spokeswoman for the group of eight utilities, said the new law is unnecessary because the consortium already believed it would be liable if an accident occurred. The utilities involved are Southern California Edison, GPU Nuclear Corporation, Northern States Power, Consolidated Edison of New York, Illinois Power, Indiana Michigan Power, Southern Nuclear Operating Company and Genoatech. AP-NY-03-18-99 1751EST Copyright 1998 The Associated Press.
