A US appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling that Private Fuel Storage Inc, a consortium of US utilities that is seeking to build a privately financed spent fuel storage facility in Utah, does not have to make public the details of its lease agreement with the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians (see NEI May 2001, p11).
PFS wants to build the facility on land owned by the tribe. The state of Utah, which opposes construction of the facility, had sought to obtain details of the lease agreement under the Freedom of Information Act. The appeals court agreed with the lower court that disclosure of certain details of the lease agreement would put PFS and the Goshutes at a competitive disadvantage for future deals.
