Residents argue against nuke waste shipments

Valerie Miller

Thursday, Dec. 9, 1999 | 10:40 a.m.

The prospect of a nuclear traffic accident was heavy on the minds of residents attending a meeting on the possible transportation of radioactive shipments to a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Yucca Mountain is the only site being studied to become the world's first high-level nuclear waste repository. If it passes scientific muster, it would have up to 100,000 truck shipments traveling to the repository at a rate of about 10 a day until it is full.

If Yucca Mountain is approved as a nuclear waste repository, a trucking route would likely go over Hoover Dam and on the Las Vegas Beltway, routes that pass through Henderson.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission held the meeting in Henderson Wednesday to gather public comments on the safety of nuclear waste containers if radioactive shipments are ever sent to Yucca Mountain as part of the long process to approve the site. Another meeting was held today in Pahrump.

"What happens if one of the truck drivers falls asleep?" Calvin Meyers, a member of the Moapa Tribal reservation, asked. The reservation is less than 90 miles from Yucca Mountain. Meyers said the danger posed by heavy truck traffic would pose a danger to his reservation.

"One of the truck drivers could hit vehicles carrying our tribal council members or others from the reservation," Meyers said.

"Human errors are a major cause in accidents," Susan Shankman, deputy director of the NRC's Spent Fuel Project Office said. "People make errors, but the point of this study is that anything that needs to be checked, is checked."

Meyers voiced his disappointment at the lack of information he said the reservation has been given on the shipments.

"It's not up to us to train you. It's up to you to inform us," he said.

Other residents pondered the safety of bringing radioactive waste through the desert.

"I'm wondering what will happen if the container holding the waste overheats, because most of the accidents at the nuclear power plants were related to the heat," Woody Bushman said.

Spent nuclear fuel is transported by trucks or by rail in heavy metal casks or containers, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official explained. The NRC maintains that the casks have been thoroughly tested for safety in the event of a road or rail accident.

Tests conducted on the casks included a 30-foot drop onto a hard surface, a drop onto a vertical steel bar, a fully engulfing 30-minute fire and immersion in water, according to the NRC.

The NRC must certify all casks, and the casks that would be used have an impressive safety record, Shankman said.

Since 1971, "Over 1,300 spent fuel shipments have taken place across the country with no releases of radioactive material," she said. "We've had a few accidents, but no releases."

The NRC will likely be back early next year to receive more public input on the transportation of nuclear waste, Shankman said.