WASHINGTON (AP) - Two members of a company seeking to build a temporary nuclear waste facility in Skull Valley, Utah, say they are suspending their financial support, causing some to question the future of the project.

Southern Nuclear Operating Co. and Xcel Energy say they are committed to a permanent waste repository planned for Nevada's Yucca Mountain and that the Utah site no longer meets their needs.

The companies are two of the eight members of Private Fuel Storage, a group of utilities that applied for a license to build the nuclear waste dump on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

Both said in letters released Thursday by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch that while Yucca is a viable option, they will not support PFS.

"It's become clear PFS will not be open in time to allow Southern Nuclear to be able to use the facility," Steve Higginbottom, spokesman for Alabama-based Southern Nuclear, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Making Yucca Mountain a success will require our full attention and resources, and that's where we're going to focus our resources."

Hatch said their decision means the plan is all but dead. In 2002, six companies - including Southern Nuclear - pledged in a letter to Hatch and Utah Sen. Bob Bennett they would not fund the PFS facility past the licensing phase.

"This marks the first nail in the coffin for PFS," Hatch said in a statement. "The PFS plan has been on life support for some time, and we're removing the feeding tubes."

But John Parkin, chairman of the PFS board and the company's chief executive officer, said Hatch's assessment is inaccurate.

Parkin said neither letter indicates that Xcel or Southern will never bring waste to Utah once the PFS site opens, just that present time the timetable for opening does not meet their needs.

Even if Xcel and Southern ultimately opt out of the Utah site, Parkin said, "there are still a lot of other utilities out there that have pressing needs."

In September PFS won federal approval for a license to build the storage site, despite objections from the state of Utah. Private Fuel Storage wants to store 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel aboveground in 4,000 steel casks.

The company has more regulatory hurdles to jump through before construction can begin, and Utah officials are trying to prevent PFS from getting any further.

Parkin said that PFS stands by it's promise of being a temporary facility and says PFS agrees that a permanent site must be built whether at Yucca Mountain or elsewhere.

"There's no way we will keep (waste) in Utah," he said.

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Staff Writer Jennifer Dobner contributed to this report from Salt Lake City.