DOE eyes Yucca Mountain waste repository rail alternative

Washington (Platts)--12Oct2006

The US Department of Energy plans to consider a second path for a rail
line in Nevada to the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain,
documents showed.

In a Federal Register notice scheduled for publication Friday, DOE said
it would consider the environmental impact of a 280-mile path, known as the
Mina corridor, through the Walker River Paiute Tribe's land in western Nevada.

The plan is an alternative to a 319-mile corridor from Caliente to Yucca
Mountain that has been DOE's preference for rail transportation to the
facility.

The tribe has given its blessing to the study.

"The Mina corridor appears to offer potential advantages to the extent it
would cross fewer mountain ranges, utilize existing rail bed and also be a
shorter distance," DOE said in a draft of the notice. "These potential
advantages would simplify design and construction, and therefore would be less
costly to construct."

DOE considered the Mina route in the 1990s, but dropped the idea when the
Walker River Paiutes refused it access to their reservation. The tribe
reconsidered earlier in 2006.

Separately, DOE is also scheduled to publish Friday a Federal Register
notice announcing plans for a "supplemental" environmental impact statement on
the Yucca Mountain repository site.

The department said it would carry out the additional review because of
its 2005 decision to use one type of canister to ship, store and ultimately
dispose of nuclear waste instead of multiple types. The change necessitated
changes in the repository's design. The original EIS was completed in 2002.

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