Routes through LV for nuke waste ripped

Thursday, June 11, 1998 | 10:57 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- An angry Sen. Arnie Adler said Wednesday the Department of Energy was more concerned with protecting the bombing range at Nellis Air Force Base than the safety of Las Vegas residents in the transportation of nuclear waste.

And state Transportation Director Tom Stephens said plans to truck the waste to Yucca Mountain would be "very disruptive" on the highways for Nevada motorists. And he said the state isn't going to cooperate with the Energy Department.

The twin salvo was aimed at J.C. de la Garza, transportation manager at the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office. He appeared before the Legislative Committee to Study Construction and Maintenance of Highways to explain the possible truck and train routes in Nevada to carry high-level nuclear waste to a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

De la Garza said the DOE prefers shipping the waste by rail. But he listed five possible routes for heavy haul trucks, three of them to go through Las Vegas. One would go through the Nellis Air Force property and the Nevada Test Site.

De la Garza said the Air Force is "resisting" allowing any truck transportation through its land. Adler, D-Carson City, said, "I'm disturbed by the federal government. You're more concerned about the safety of the bombing range than the people of Las Vegas.

"The health and safety of a million and a half people have taken a back seat to a bombing range."

De la Garza agreed a truck route though the federal property might be better. "However, the Air Force wants to maintain its sovereignty," he said. But Adler replied that the state also wants to maintain its sovereignty.

De la Garza told the committee there would be about 11 shipments a week into Yucca Mountain aboard giant trucks that would be pulled and pushed by tractors. They would have a maximum speed of 45-50 mph and carry about 150 tons.

Stephens said these trucks would "move very slowly" and would be "extremely disruptive" to highway traffic. These size loads happen in Nevada once a year.

Two of the routes would carry the radioactive shipments over the northern and western beltways of Las Vegas. Stephens said neither was a federal or a state highway and he doubted the citizens of Southern Nevada, who are paying for these roads, would want to see nuclear-laden trucks.

"The enthusiasm for paying for these would completely disappear," Stephens said.

He said the state Department of Transportation would not participate with the DOE in any plans to upgrade or maintain any of the proposed roads being used. The least disruptive way would be to carry the waste across the test site, starting from Caliente, he said.

Adler also said he was worried that these heavy trucks would damage the state highways.

De la Garza said he realized that the proposed routes on the state highways would be "disruptive." But he said turnouts are planned every five miles on U.S. 95 for the trucks to use and allow the motoring public to move past the vehicles.

In addition, the DOE will upgrade and maintain the highways it uses.

De la Garza emphasized no final decision has been made whether to ship by rail or truck to Yucca Mountain. And no routes have been selected. But he said there's never been an accident in which the casks containing nuclear waste have been "bridged."

He conceded that the DOE has never used these giant trucks for transporting nuclear waste. But he said mining and power companies use them to haul big equipment.

If trucks are used, the nuclear waste would arrive by rail in Nevada and then be loaded aboard the vehicles. Two possible rail unloading sites would be at Sloan/Jean and Apex/Dry Lake. The three others would be at Caliente. The Caliente-Chalk Mountain route would run near Area 51, the super secret Air Force testing field. But it would cost about $99 million compared to the other routes which run up to $153 million.

The potential railroad routes start at near Las Vegas, Jean, two at Caliente and one at Carlin. Their costs range from $213 million to $726 million.