Officials tell commission of nuke peril

Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

If a repository for highly radioactive waste is built at Yucca Mountain, six trucks loaded with shipments will drive through the Las Vegas Valley en route to the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas every day for 24 years.

Unfortunately, no one is trying to calculate the danger those daily shipments may pose to drivers, truck inspectors, gas station attendants or others who may come in contact with the intact containers, state and local officials told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Tuesday.

A truck inspector standing six to seven feet from a single shipping cask once a week will get the same amount of radiation in a year -- 300 millirems -- that an average person receives from natural sources such as sunlight and soils each year, Robert Halstead, an adviser to the state on transporting high-level nuclear waste, told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

An average chest X-ray exposes a person to about 10 millirems, a measure of radiation to living tissue. But a transportation inspector, truck driver or gas station attendant could get double that radiation exposure from working around high-level nuclear waste shipments.

The NRC met in Las Vegas to hear public concerns about its updated study on transportation risks from shipping highly radioactive waste to Yucca. The commission report said its review this year of a study done 23 years ago showed that there was no change in its estimate that shipments would pose a very low risk to the public.

The Las Vegas meeting was the first time the public had a chance to comment on the study update, Susan Shankman of the NRC's spent fuel office said. If the commission believes there is a greater risk to the public's health and safety from the increased shipments, it would change its regulations, she said. "Any information we get is important information."

Clark County analyst Fred Dilger said neither the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which would license a repository for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste, nor the U.S. Department of Energy, which is studying the mountain, calculated the radiation exposure to workers from intact shipping containers. "And those shipments will roll through Southern Nevada seven days a week for 24 years," he said.

Nevada officials also believe the NRC is underestimating risks from a terrorism attack on a nuclear waste shipment, Halstead said.

Ordinary people want to know the worst possible outcome from shipping such dangerous materials, said Judy Treichel, director of the citizen advisory group Nuclear Waste Task Force. The NRC has to act as tough as possible to enforce its rules, she said.

"This is a sales pitch to make people think it isn't dangerous," she said of the NRC's latest study to show risks haven't changed in over 20 years.

"So, answer the question, 'What if. . .?' " Treichel urged the NRC. "You're supposed to be the tough cop."

For Bill Ott of Ely, a town in northeast Nevada where radioactive shipments are likely to travel on their way to Yucca, it was a question of explaining the dangers so ranchers and people who live close to the land could understand the risks.

"How do we get the people of White Pine County to understand?" Ott asked. "People don't tend to read a 400-page report before a public meeting."