High-level shipments may have controls

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, June 8, 2000 | 11:29 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Officials with the Rockville, Md.-based Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday said that if trucks ever haul high-level nuclear waste cross-country to Yucca Mountain, state authorities would have some control over which routes are taken.

That runs counter to what apparently happened with seven low-level waste shipments made from January to March this year. Those shipments of Department of Energy waste rumbled along Craig Road and Cheyenne Avenue in North Las Vegas on their way from a former nuclear weapons plant at Rocky Flats, Colo., to the Nevada Test Site, home to a low-level waste burial ground.

That surprised state and North Las Vegas officials. They thought they had an informal agreement with the DOE that the waste would stay on interstates and off busy city streets.

But DOE officials said they couldn't control their Colorado shippers who defy their wishes and use surface streets. And the shippers are not required to notify the Nevada Department of Transportation or the state's Nuclear Projects Office about route choices, officials in both offices said today.

But what if the waste was an even more dangerous material -- highly radioactive spent uranium fuel from nuclear power plants and defense activities? That's another story, federal officials said.

High-level waste shipments to Yucca Mountain would follow a clear shipping procedure:

A "licensee" -- the owner of the waste, such as a nuclear power plant or the DOE -- would first select a shipping route using interstates, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said. The U.S. Transportation Department and the state must then approve the route, giving the state the opportunity to select an alternate route.

The NRC also must approve the route.

"We're looking at it to see if they have implemented the proper security safeguards," said Skip Young, an NRC acting security chief.

The NRC then notifies one designated state official about the exact time of shipment, giving the state 10 days notice. The state official -- in Nevada, state radiological health officer Stan Marshall -- then notifies state emergency teams, who will be on alert. The state also must provide armed guards to accompany the waste shipment.

The public is not told about the waste shipment until 10 days after it occurs as a security precaution, Young said.

The armed state escorts would make it difficult for a truck to stray off course, said Bob Halstead, a Wisconsin-based consultant who works full time for the Nevada Nuclear Projects Office. Truckers also would be in constant contact with dispatchers, which also would make a detour difficult, he said.

Shipping high-level waste is "a whole different world," than low-level waste shipping, Halstead said.

"High-level waste shipments are far more controlled," state nuclear projects office Director Bob Loux agreed.

While low-level waste shipments are fairly common in America, shipments of high-level spent nuclear fuel have been relatively rare. NRC officials say there were only 11 such shipments in 1997, the last year information was available. Nuclear power plants were shipping used fuel to other nuclear plants for storage.

But if the DOE opens Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the nation's high-level nuclear waste dump, trucks and trains would make an estimated 100,000 shipments of waste to Nevada, crossing 43 states.

Despite established shipping procedures, that worries Nevada officials.

"If anyone is concerned about low-level waste, they should be scared to death about high-level," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said today. "It's a serious thing. It's great to have all these (shipping) procedures, but nobody is there to enforce them."

North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon also worries that the city has little assurance the DOE would stay on course if they one day bring high-level waste through his city. The North Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution stating the city's staunch opposition to low-level waste being shipped on city streets.

"If they wane on us on low-level, maybe the high-level waste will be no different," Montandon said.

At this point, Rocky Flats is the only plant that is taking low-level nuclear waste through the Las Vegas Valley via the Hoover Dam and Spaghetti Bowl, DOE spokesman Carl Gertz said.

The DOE sent a letter to the Rocky Flats plant March 16, asking them to switch routes and avoid the Las Vegas Valley and negotiate a new contract. Gertz said the plant will have to comply with the DOE and negotiate a new contract, which will result in new shipping routes.

The contract change could cost the plant anywhere from nothing to $4 million, he said.

Negotiations with Rocky Flats have begun, and the DOE hopes to see a new contract by the end of June, going into effect July 1.

Sun reporter Diana Sahagun contributed to this report.