YUCCA MOUNTAIN: DOE formalizes nuclear waste plan
Apr 07 - Las Vegas Review - Journal
The decision marks an early milestone as the government shapes a plan to move
77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and government radioactive waste from 39
states to be buried in Nevada starting in 2010.
It means we now are going to go forward with transportation planning based on
rail," said Allen Benson, spokesman for DOE's Office of Repository
Development in Las Vegas.
DOE planning includes construction of a Nevada railroad along a 319-mile
corridor from Caliente to the Yucca repository. That segment also took a step
forward Monday with the announcement of public scoping meetings in May.
The DOE announcement also opened the government to fresh criticism from
Nevada elected leaders.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said DOE "is grasping at straws in its haste to
ram the project through."
"The agency doesn't even know if it can build an entirely new rail line,
yet says that's what it intends to do," Reid said. "There is
absolutely no way that they can safely transport nuclear waste regardless of how
they want to do it."
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said DOE's plan to move ahead while a half dozen
lawsuits against the project are pending in federal court "is indicative of
the department's arrogance."
Outside Nevada, nuclear waste shipping routes across railroad networks in key
parts of the country won't be specified for several more years, DOE officials
have said.
Under the "mostly rail" scenario DOE has decided to adopt, an
estimated 1,079 nuclear waste shipments over 24 years still would be sent to
Nevada by truck because some nuclear utilities do not have access to rail,
according to the government.
Although DOE managers have said for months they were leaning toward a rail
plan, an official designation was greeted by the nuclear industry as a step
forward for a key element of the Yucca Mountain Project.
"We see this as an important building block, another encouraging sign
that (the department) is serious about implementing a national transportation
program," said David Blee, spokesman for the U.S. Transport Council, an
association of nuclear waste shipping firms.
Nevada leaders also have been waiting for the transportation decision, for
different reasons. They said the rail designation opens up a new segment of the
Yucca program to formal scrutiny and possibly more lawsuits.
Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency, said once
a formal record of decision is issued later this week he intends to meet with
the state's lawyers to determine if any legal actions will be taken.
In comments to the Bureau of Land Management about withdrawing public land
for the Caliente rail corridor, state officials raised questions about what they
view as DOE's reluctance to follow the National Environmental Policy Act in
forming a transportation strategy.
"I personally remain of the belief that in the end this is going to be
100 percent truck," Loux said about DOE's strategy to ship the waste mostly
by rail instead of by heavy haul trucks.
"Rail will be too costly and take too much time to build, and there are
logistical problems in the rail plan itself that will be too difficult to manage
and overcome," he said.
Benson said formal notification of the "mostly rail" strategy will
be published by Thursday in the Federal Register, along with a notice that the
department plans to develop an environmental impact study of the rail corridor
through rural Nevada.
The Federal Register notice will kick off a 45-day public comment period that
will include scoping meetings in Amargosa Valley, Goldfield and Caliente. It
will take about a year to finalize an environmental study, Benson said.
No meetings are scheduled in Clark County. Benson said the sessions were
scheduled for locations along the rural Nevada corridor.
Among topics for discussion at the scoping meetings is whether the Nevada
railroad should be used to transport commercial goods when it is not being used
for nuclear waste, DOE said.
Reid and Ensign charged DOE was moving ahead prematurely as questions mount
about a strategy that includes building a rail line across rugged terrain and at
costs estimated by the state to top $1 billion.
DOE officials confirmed last week they have analyzed a backup plan if a
railroad can't be built on time for a planned 2010 repository opening. That plan
envisions shipping nuclear waste by rail to Caliente, then trucking the material
to the Yucca site.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
The Energy Department will solicit public comment on its proposed nuclear
rail project at three rural Nevada hearings in May. The railroad would carry
nuclear waste from Caliente to Yucca Mountain:
- May 3, 4-8 p.m., Longstreet Inn & Casino, state Route 373, Amargosa
Valley.
- May 4, 4-8 p.m., Goldfield Community Center, 301 Cook St., Goldfield.
- May 5, 4-8 p.m., Caliente Youth Center, U.S. Highway 93, Caliente.
Map.
CALIENTE RAIL LINE
The Energy Department announced Monday that it will formally designate the
Caliente corridor as its choice for building a 319- mile rail line to ship
highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel to the planned Yucca Mountain repository.
The rail line will be built on a 200-foot-wide right of way within the mile-wide
corridor.
SOURCE: Department of Energy
Mike Johnson/Review-Journal