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In the first balanced, in-depth examination of the proposal to temporarily store nuclear waste on the reservation lands of the Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indian tribe, KUED Senior Producer Ken Verdoia details the cultural, political, economic and environmental conflicts that make this one of the most compelling public policy crises of the new century. 90 minutes.

Release date: Wednesday, July 11th, 2001

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The vast open landscape of Utah's West Desert has become a crossroads for a national energy, safety and accountability debate. The small Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indian tribe, already surrounded by military, chemical and radiation hazards, is poised to welcome more than 80 million pounds of the nation's high-level nuclear waste to their traditional homeland. If their partnership with a consortium of nuclear power utilities gains federal approval, the Skull Valley reservation lands will store 40,000 metric tons of spent uranium fuel rods from the nation's nuclear power plants for up to 40 years. The above-ground, open-air storage plan has moved forward despite the opposition of Utah's Governor, state legislature, congressional delegation and public sentiment. The result is a full-blown power struggle: a small, forgotten Native American tribe's sovereignty in direct conflict with a state's determination to block potentially lethal spent nuclear rods from storage within its borders. Large public utilities facing an energy crisis drive forward with plans to move nuclear waste from power plants across the country to the barren deserts of the West. The federal government's promise to manage nuclear waste comes in sharp conflict with a state's ability to control its own destiny. And at the center of the controversy is arguably the most lethal industrial waste ever produced by humankind. In the first balanced, in-depth examination of the proposal to temporarily store nuclear waste on the reservation lands of the Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indian tribe, KUED Senior Producer Ken Verdoia details the cultural, political, economic and environmental conflicts that make this one of the most compelling public policy crises of the new century. In a special 90-minute documentary designed to educate Utahns on a largely misunderstood and complex public process, KUED presents "Skull Valley: Radioactive Waste and the American West."

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