Friday, July 20, 2001 | 11:32 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- While soot-covered firefighters tried to contain a hazardous materials freight train fire in a Baltimore tunnel on Thursday, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the accident is another example of the potential dangers of transporting high-level nuclear waste.
The Nevada delegation opposes a federal plan to one day ship the nation's nuclear waste from 103 power plants nationwide on trains and trucks to a permanent burial ground at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
Nuclear industry officials who are eager for Yucca Mountain to open and accept their waste say transporting waste is safe. High-tech shipping containers would prevent leaks even in fiery, catastrophic accidents, nuclear experts say. They say Nevada officials are needlessly scaring people about the risks.
Nevada officials stress the potential shipping dangers as part of their overall argument against the Yucca plan.
"If people think hydrochloric acid is bad -- which it is -- think about how bad nuclear waste is," Reid said in a Senate floor speech. "A speck the size of a pinpoint would kill a person. We are talking about transporting some 70,000 tons of it all across America."
Reid aides said the senator next week may add language to the nation's transportation spending bill that addresses emergency preparedness for hazardous materials crews. The Senate is likely to debate the bill next week.
Reid argued that it is safer to leave nuclear waste at the plants that produce it. That's too expensive, argue nuclear plant operators. They add that the federal government broke a contract promise to haul the waste away by 1998.
"It could be stored onsite in storage containers for a fraction of the cost of a permanent repository," Reid said. "It could be stored relatively safely for 100 years, the scientists say. During that period of time, we might develop a breakthrough idea as to what could be done safely with these spent fuel rods."
Reid's comments fell on the day the Senate voted 97-2 to approve a $25.5 billion bill that pays for the nation's energy and water projects.
The bill contains $275 million for continued projects at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. That's down from $445 million requested by the Department of Energy, the project's manager. Reid, a member of the Appropriations Committee, slashed the funding in an effort to slow the project.
The House approved $443 million for Yucca funding. House and Senate negotiators, including Reid, are expected to meet to reach a compromise on the budget this summer or in early fall. Pro-Yucca Sens. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, among others, intend to restore Yucca funding. Budget cuts threaten the project, they said.
The Associated Press
contributed to this article.
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