Activist group fears nuke trains could be diverted through Reno

Wednesday, July 1, 1998 | 9:24 a.m.

Two landslides have crossed over the Union Pacific railroad line in the past month. Three cars carrying tequila and wine plunged 50 feet to the banks of the river one slide hit a train.

Another slide four days later blocked the tracks to all train traffic until it could be cleared.

Lee Dazey, director of the citizen watchdog group Citizen Alert, fears more slides as snow in the mountains continues to melt could force the Department of Energy and Union Pacific to divert the trains through Reno en route to Idaho.

Fuel rods from South Korea and Indonesia are to be shipped to California beginning this month under a program designed to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists.

Union Pacific will then transport the casks of spent nuclear rods to the National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho. Five such shipments are planned over the next decade.

Energy Department spokesman John Belluardo said the casks containing the spent nuclear rods are safe and could withstand a landslide.

"The Feather River is the preferred route," he said. "Until something happens that keeps us from shipping there, that's where it's going.

"There are no plans to ship through Reno that I'm aware of," he said.