Hatch: F-16 Crash Highlights Danger of PFS Proposal
HATCH: F-16 CRASH HIGHLIGHTS DANGER OF PFS PROPOSAL
Following the crash of an armed F-16 fighter outside the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) Thursday, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) today strongly urged Utahns to voice their concerns about the reckless proposal to store high-level nuclear waste so close to the vital Air Force training range.
"Unfortunately, crashes like yesterday's are not rare we've seen more than 70 crashes at UTTR in the last 20 years," Hatch said. "More than half the nation's high-level nuclear waste could be stored above ground at Skull Valley, which lies directly in the low-level flight path of the 7,000 F-16s that train at UTTR. Let's remember that this isn't simply a flight training zone it's a cruise-missile bombing range. I can't think of a more dangerous place to store this waste."
Hatch noted that when Private Fuel Storage (PFS) first applied for a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the NRC's three judge Atomic Licensing Board ruled that the threat of a crash from an F-16 was too great to allow a license for the proposed facility. However, PFS reapplied after one of the three judges was replaced, this time making a different pitch even though all the facts remained the same.
As a result, the judges ruled, in a two-to-one decision, that the risk of a crash from an F-16 was low enough to allow the license. However, Judge Peter Lam, the senior member of the panel and its only nuclear engineer, gave a strong dissent:
"The proposed PFS facility does not currently have a demonstrated adequate safety margin against accidental aircraft crashes....This lack of an adequate safety margin is a direct manifestation of the fundamentally difficult situation of the proposed PFS site: 4,000 spent fuel storage casks sitting in the flight corridor of some 7,000 F-16 flights a year."
At Hatch's request, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has re-opened the public comment period on the PFS proposal, indicating that it could deny rights of way that PFS needs to construct the site should BLM determine the site is not in the public's interest.
"We only have through May 8 less than two months to make our voices heard and convince the BLM that transporting waste to Skull Valley is not in the public's interest," Hatch said. "We have a solid case, and we need to make it repeatedly and resoundingly."
Comments should be directed to the BLM through Pam Schuller at pam_schuller@blm.gov or by fax at (801) 977-4397.
http://hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=1553&Month=3&Year=2006