Hearing brings out few people to discuss nuclear waste transportation

C.G. Wallace

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2000 | 3:45 a.m.

SALT LAKE CITY - The prospect of hauling spent nuclear fuel through Utah dominated a hearing Thursday to give people a chance to comment on a proposed nuclear waste dump in Yucca Mountain, Nev.

About 30 people attended the hearing held by the Department of Energy. Half of them offered their opinions on a 1,600-page environmental study about Yucca Mountain.

By law, the government is required to gather public comment before issuing a final report.

The nuclear waste repository already is years behind schedule.

If approved, it would not begin accepting spent fuel until 2010. Yucca Mountain, 90 northwest of Las Vegas, would be the country's centralized dumping ground for spent nuclear fuel. The material is being temporarily stored at 77 sites around the country. Most are commercial nuclear reactors.

Much of the material would have to cross Utah, either by train or truck.

Ginger Swartz, an employee for the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, which opposes the project, said depending on the transportation scenario, between 43,000 and 80,000 truck shipments of spent nuclear fuel would pass through the state during the next 24 years.

"Under DOE's shipping scenario, Utah would be the most heavily affected corridor state for truck shipments to Yucca Mountain," Swartz said. "Yet the (environmental study) makes no particular reference to transportation impacts in Utah."

Steve Erickson, spokesman for the Downwinders nuclear watchdog group, echoed Swartz's concerns.

"The transportation of these materials to a flawed facility will needlessly endanger millions of U.S. citizens and a majority of Utah's residents," he said.

Erickson said he was disappointed that no member of the state's congressional delegation attended the meeting.

But half the speakers said the waste problem needs a permanent solution, and quickly. Those speakers said the transportation of the waste is very safe.

"These materials exist today. They are with us now and they won't go away by themselves," said James Thompson.