Sometimes, it's a good thing when the wheels of justice grind slowly. Whether a federal judge's decision this week to overturn an impediment to Private Fuel Storage, which wanted to locate thousands of spent nuclear fuel rods in Utah, took long enough remains to be seen.

PFS, a consortium of mostly Eastern nuclear facilities, has lost nearly all its members during this long process, which began in the '90s. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch said Tuesday he believes state and congressional leaders have put enough obstacles in place to keep the consortium from ever regaining life. Every member of the state's delegation in Washington spoke along similar lines. But it remains to be seen whether their resolve is enough.

The court overturned two decisions by the Department of Interior. One denied PFS a right-of-way across land owned by the Goshute Indians in Skull Valley. The other denied a long-term lease on Goshute land that was supposed to house the repository. Both decisions now have been remanded to the Department of Interior.

The decision was a bad one. Although PFS had obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the proposed storage facility left many questions unanswered. For example, it would be located close to a military bombing range, leaving open the possibility of accidents that could cause widespread environmental harm. It is doubtful the U.S. military, which relies on the unique topography and sparsely populated area near the reservation for training, would allow such a thing without waging a vigorous fight.

Coincidentally, the Department of Energy is a little more than two months away from its target date for ending the permanent nuclear waste storage facility in Nevada's Yucca Mountain. That project, also deeply flawed from the start, fell victim to political pressures, not least of which came from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who represents Nevada.

Without Yucca Mountain, a PFS site in Utah would become the nation's de facto permanent nuclear waste storage facility. At the least, the decision on where to site such a facility should be made by elected representatives. In truth, however, the current system of storing spent rods on site at nuclear generating plants is safe and reliable.

Given this unfortunate ruling, it may be time to begin looking for legislative remedies again to make sure the PFS plan doesn't go forward. Unfortunately, the potential financial gains from a storage site may be enough to entice PFS to work to revive its plans.