State threatens DOE on nuke shipments

Thursday, Dec. 3, 1998 | 11:26 a.m.

The state has issued a written threat to the U.S. Department of Energy: It must stop or reroute shipments of low-level nuclear waste through Las Vegas to the Nevada Test Site until further environmental studies are completed, or the state will go to court to make it stop.

The shipments, from all over the country, have been coming through Las Vegas since the Test Site opened in the 1950s. They come on Interstate 15 and across Hoover Dam on U.S. 95 and head through the Spaghetti Bowl in the center of town on their way to Mercury, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The DOE did an environmental assessment on the shipments earlier this year because of state concerns and stricter environmental laws. Nevada's response to the assessment, made in a report by the state Agency for Nuclear Projects, was that the assessment "is wholly deficient," and it threatened to sue.

The DOE, looking at alternative routes, examined possible rail transfer stations at Yermo and Barstow, both in California, and Caliente, in Nye County. That would allow larger shipments to go to a more remote site and be off-loaded to trucks for transport to the Test Site. But the direct routes from those sites to the Test Site are rural two-lane highways that are generally avoided by truckers.

There are no plans to fund such a transfer station, said Carl Gertz, the DOE official in charge of low-level radioactive waste disposal at the Test Site. The federal government's comments on possible sites were for the benefit of private industry, if a shipper wanted to build a transfer station, he said.

Federal and state officials are also concerned about radioactive cargo traveling across Hoover Dam, which attracts bumper-to-bumper traffic from tourists worldwide.

The state made three demands on the DOE regarding future low-level nuclear shipments:

-- The DOE must notify state and local officials about each new shipment of low-level nuclear waste heading for the Test Site. The information must include the number of shipments, estimated arrival times, type and volume of wastes and the routes.

-- The DOE must offer periodic traffic advisories to waste generators and carriers concerning hazards, delays and accidents. For example, highway construction at Hoover Dam often means a three-hour delay.

-- The DOE's Nevada Operations Office must develop plans to avoid Hoover Dam and the Las Vegas Valley.

The state's reply could lead to a more in-depth environmental impact statement over the transportation of low-level nuclear waste.

Gertz said the DOE appreciated the state's ongoing work on the low-level nuclear waste issue.