Accord restricts nuclear routes in valley

Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2000 | 11:07 a.m.

Low-level nuclear shipments have stopped traveling over Hoover Dam or through the Spaghetti Bowl en route to the Nevada Test Site since the U.S. Department of Energy signed an agreement with the main producer of the waste.

The agreement, signed in June, became public Monday with the release of the DOE's third-quarter report on low-level nuclear transportation through Nevada to the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The report noted 35 more low-level nuclear waste shipments rumbled through the Las Vegas Valley on their way to the Nevada Test Site in the three months ending in June compared with the previous quarter. According to the report, there would be no more shipments passing through the two busy Nevada roadways after June 30.

In mid-June the DOE signed a formal agreement with Rocky Flats, the now-closed plutonium processing plant outside Golden, Colo., that ships the majority of low-level waste to the Test Site. The agreement will prevent waste shipments from going over both Hoover Dam and the Spaghetti Bowl, Carl Gertz, DOE's project manager for nuclear transportation, said.

A year ago all nuclear waste shipments coming from Colorado or DOE's Fernald, Ohio, uranium processing plant traveled over Hoover Dam or through the Spaghetti Bowl, Gertz said.

As of June 30 it was down to 30 percent.

"We are driving it down to zero, and the September report should reflect that there are no more shipments over the dam or through the Spaghetti Bowl," Gertz said.

The formal agreement does not address other routes that local government have objected to, such as Cheyenne Avenue in North Las Vegas or Interstate 215 through Henderson. Nor does it cover any waste producer other than Rocky Flats, though Gertz said the DOE has informal agreements with other producers.

However, in case of highway construction or an emergency such as accidents, earthquakes or floods, the drivers are allowed to take the major federal routes that cross the dam and go through the Spaghetti Bowl, Gertz said.

Local officials are skeptical. With the low-level waste shipping trend on the rise, they wonder how the DOE can avoid those two choke points. "We'll wait and see what happens by the end of September," said Fred Dilger, an analyst with the county's Nuclear Waste Division.

Clark County, Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas had complained to the DOE that nuclear shipments through heavily congested areas raised the potential for a nuclear accident.

The problem is shipping nuclear waste through populated areas, County Emergency Services Director Bob Andrews said. "If it can happen, it will happen," he said of potential accidents that could expose residents and visitors.

Whatever route they take, the trend is pointing toward an increase in shipments. During the first three months of 2000 DOE shipped 112 truckloads through Las Vegas. In the following quarter, the number rose 31 percent, to 147.

DOE's Rocky Flats facility shipped 106,000 cubic feet of materials such as contaminated laboratory clothing, equipment and soils through June 30, compared with 99,044 cubic feet at the end of March.