Nuke waste on beltway to be studied

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, May 11, 2000 | 11:39 a.m.

North Las Vegas will conduct the first transportation study for the state to determine how residents could be effected if high-level radioactive waste is shipped through the city.

The state Agency for Nuclear Projects awarded North Las Vegas a $50,000 grant this month to assess the risks and hazards associated with shipping radioactive waste along the northern portion of the Las Vegas Beltway.

Yucca Mountain is the only site being studied by the Department of Energy for a proposed repository for 70,000 tons of highly radioactive waste from the nation's nuclear power plants.

One proposed transportation route is via the northern leg of the beltway, which when completed in 2001 will link U.S. 95 and Interstate 15. The beltway passes directly through 7,500 acres of what is now Bureau of Land Management Land that North Las Vegas is proposing to turn into master-planned communities.

"There's not a lot of support in North Las Vegas for shipping nuclear waste through our city," Public Works Director Jim Bell said. "We want to take a look at what the impacts will be if it were a route."

The prospect of hazardous waste moving through the city could have devastating effects on future development, said Charity Fechter, a transportation planner with the city. She added that city departments are taking the study seriously, as a way to find out just what the effects could be.

The city has hired local consulting firm Lewis Berger & Associates to conduct the study, which should be completed by June 30, according to staff reports.

Roger Patton, senior vice president, said the firm will look at the population and business scenarios that will likely be in place within a half-mile of the beltway by the time shipment would begin.

The project will also look at the infrastructure of the beltway, and if it will be suited to handle the heavy trucks carrying the waste.

"We're going to try to set up a realistic scenario," he said.

Joe Strolin, planning division administrator for the state Agency for Nuclear Projects, said part of the reason for the transportation study is because the agency believes the DOE's environmental impact statement is flawed.

Fechter agrees. "It does not address what we know is going to be out there," she said.

For instance, the population date used in the impact statement comes from 1990 Census data. But since 1990, she said, the city's population has more than doubled, and it is expected that it will double again by 2010, the proposed date for opening a repository.

The DOE study also does not anticipate a population growth near the beltway, a growth the city is counting on to support a massive master-planned community.

It is expected that the first 1,200-acre parcel of the 7,500 acres will be auctioned off by the BLM by next year, with development occurring immediately thereafter.

Because the DOE is expected to release the final environmental impact statement in November, the state agency is hoping the transportation results will persuade the DOE to draft a new statement, taking the study into consideration.

"We would like to know what the effects are," Strolin said. "One of the reasons a study like this has been in discussion is because we have not done any work on the beltway up to now, and it will be a major issue down the road.

"We never thought they'd (DOE) be silly enough to use the beltways," he said.

Diana Sahagun covers North Las Vegas for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2320 or by e-mail at diana@lasvegassun.com