Tim Vollmann contends that the Goshute Tribe has the right to store spent nuclear fuel on tribal property (Opinion, Aug. 28). I do not contest his legal assertions. The fact that it may be legal, however, does not necessarily make it a good idea.
In the field of risk assessment, some potential catastrophic events have a low probability of occurring, but they carry grave consequences if they do. In other words, some events have such dire consequences that the risk is simply not worth taking. A terror attack in Skull Valley may be an example of such a “low probability, high consequence” event.
Despite the fact that spent fuel is deadly, I have little doubt that storage casks are designed to withstand extreme forces and temperatures. But a terror attack would not have to breach the casks to be successful. The whole point of terrorism is not the attack per se. Rather it is to instill fear, mistrust, and insecurity after an attack.
How would the citizens of Utah feel after a terror attempt, successful or not, on Skull Valley? How would we feel if a plot were merely uncovered?
Mr. Vollmann, an attorney representing the tribe, has harsh words for the NIMBY (not in my back yard) mentality of Utahns. Well, perception is reality. However improbable an attack, why should the citizens of Utah blithely accept a bullseye centered in Skull Valley? However improbable it may have seemed on Sept. 10, 2001, the events of the next day should have taught us that the unimaginable sometimes happens.
More importantly, Mr. Vollmann contends that a Skull Valley repository will be temporary by legal contract and federal license. Now all he has to do is convince us that things will work out that way. After all, the DOE, by federal statute, was supposed to take possession of existing spent fuel in 1998. DOE defaulted on this obligation because it had no place to put it.
Yucca Mountain in Nevada was the intended permanent home for any spent fuel that would come to Skull Valley. The DOE worked on Yucca Mountain for 30 years before it walked away this year. At this point in time, a final resting place for Skull Valley waste isn’t even a gleam in any federal agency’s eye. So I ask, where will it go when the lease is up? Does anyone really believe the utilities that generated it will take it back? These are questions without answers.
I do not necessarily oppose nuclear power. I suspect that my children and grandchildren will likely see a strong resurgence in nuclear power generation in this country during their lifetimes. In the absence of new technologies, the threat of climate change makes nuclear power even more desirable.
In the meantime, Skull Valley is little more than a band-aid for a waste problem the federal government has lacked the political will to solve.
Steve Nelson is a professor of geochemistry at Brigham Young University. He is a former member, vice-chair, and chair of the Utah Radiation Control Board. The views expressed are his alone.
