Tunnel fire cited as cause for nuke waste changes

Friday, Nov. 2, 2001 | 11:15 a.m.

Gov. Kenny Guinn and state attorneys have asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to immediately amend rules that apply to the shipment of radioactive waste.

Guinn's request came after the release of a study that factored in the presence of nuclear waste in a July 18 accident in Baltimore, where a train hauling toxic materials derailed in a tunnel. The accident led to a fire that shut down a portion of the city for more than a week.

State officials have asked for a formal hearing concerning the report.

If Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is approved by the Department of Energy to store 77,000 tons of the nation's high-level radioactive waste, the nuclear waste would be shipped to the site from locations throughout the county.

The report, "Radiological Consequences of Severe Rail Accidents Involving Spent Nuclear Fuel Shipments to Yucca Mountain: Hypothetical Baltimore Rail Tunnel Fire Involving SNF (spent nuclear fuel)," was released to the public Thursday.

The report analyzes the hypothetical release of radiation that subsequently blows 43 miles from a leaking nuclear waste container. Radioactive waste from the Calvert Cliffs reactor in Maryland would pass through the Baltimore tunnel en route to Yucca Mountain.

The analysis relied on weather and environmental conditions that were present during the five-day fire.

A "worst case" blaze could cause seals on either end of a metal container to crack, subsequently releasing enough radiation to expose 345,493 people and cause eight to 50 cases of cancer, the report says.

Total cleanup costs were estimated at $13.7 billion.

"In order to reduce a longterm dose, significant decontamination of the affected areas would be required, along with the likely relocation of a large number of households and businesses most affected," wrote the study's authors, Matthew Lamb and Marvin Resnikoff of Radioactive Waste Management Associates.

If an appropriate evacution and decontamination plan was in place, exposures could be "significantly" reduced, the report said, although the warning system must improve. Although Civil Defense sirens were activated as a result of the fire, residents became confused and did not immediately turn on televisions or radios, the report said.

"Regardless, the scenario involving a spent nuclear fuel cask in a situation similar to the Baltimore tunnel fire would be disastrous," the 20-page report concluded.

Guinn sent a copy of the report to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

"As you will see from the report, the consequences of such an accident involving spent fuel would be disastrous," Guinn wrote in a separate memo.

"It's definitely another arrow in our arsenal," Reid spokesman Nathan Naylor said.

Two years ago Nevada asked the NRC to review rules -- adopted in 1983 -- that outline how nuclear facilities would be protected against terrorism. The NRC has not responded to the state's request.

NRC Chairman Richard Meserve has ordered such a review, which is ongoing, an NRC spokesman said Thursday.

On Oct. 16, a Washington-based law firm that is working for the state in its fight against Yucca, asked Meserve for a formal hearing on the transportation of nuclear waste and security measures in place at DOE facilities throughout the country.

"The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against New York City and Washington, D.C., have, unfortunately, proven the state of Nevada's petition to be prophetic," wrote Washington attorney William Briggs Jr. of Ross, Dixon & Bell L.L.P., to Meserve.