Editorial: Baltimore derailment a bad omen

Wednesday, July 25, 2001 | 8:53 a.m.

The fiery train derailment in Baltimore happened thousands of miles away from here, but it illustrates perfectly why the federal government has no business trying to ship high-level nuclear waste clear across the nation to Yucca Mountain. The derailment of the 60-car freight train was terrifying. Not only did one of the cars rupture, allowing thousands of gallons of hydrochloric acid to spill, but the cars were on fire for six days, reaching estimated temperatures as high as 1,500 degrees. The accident effectively brought downtown Baltimore to a standstill.

The fires fortunately have been extinguished, but it is imperative that the nation not forget how close Baltimore came to facing an even greater catastrophe, especially as it relates to Nevada's Yucca Mountain, which the federal government has targeted to be the dumping ground for the nation's high-level nuclear waste. The great majority of the nuclear waste is generated east of the Mississippi River, so that means this waste will either have to be sent by truck or rail, having to travel in some cases up to a couple thousand miles.

The federal government has refused to say what routes the waste would travel to make its way to Nevada. This is an attempt to hoodwink the public into believing that the issue of nuclear waste storage would be a problem isolated to just Nevada. Of course, if the residents of big cities and small towns, who live near either rail routes or major interstate highways, were told that nuclear waste would travel nearby, all of a sudden Yucca Mountain might not seem as remote anymore. While evidence has been gathered that points to Yucca Mountain being a dangerous place to bury nuclear waste, the federal government still is hell-bent on selecting Yucca Mountain. If the federal government can get a designation soon, then it will make it that much tougher for people who live along the potential routes to marshal their opposition.

It still isn't clear what caused the derailment, but National Transportation Safety Board investigators are considering the possibility that a break in the water main, which is above the train tunnel, may have caused the accident. Whatever the reason, it clearly shows how precarious it is to ship hazardous materials by rail. It is encouraging then that the Senate voted 96-0 to order a federal study of health, safety, environmental and economic risks from the transportation of hazardous and radioactive materials. The proposal was authored by Senate Assistant Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has been leading Nevada's opposition to a nuclear dump in Nevada.

Another important issue is the financial damage from the derailment. The Associated Press reports that the city still hasn't yet figured out exactly how much it will cost to repair the track, clean up the hazardous materials, pay hundreds of firefighters overtime pay and to compensate local businesses downtown that lost revenues. This is a critical matter, an issue that Clark County is trying to address regarding Yucca Mountain. As the Sun's Mary Manning reported last week, a consulting firm for Clark County government projected that county government would have to spend more than $1 billion to adequately train emergency crews to respond to a possible accident. Property damage could total $2.5 billion for those who live near the transportation routes and hotel-casinos could lose 10 percent to 20 percent of their visitors, according to the report.

Despite the rush to send 77,000 tons of man's deadliest substance to Nevada, it's still not too late. Congress should halt this insane haste to ship the waste to Nevada. Baltimore's experience should be reason enough to comprehend that Yucca Mountain isn't just Nevada's problem, it would be a land mine for any city or town that had the misfortune of being located near the path that would take nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain.