Letter: Storing waste at Yucca ignores terrorist threat

Friday, Nov. 16, 2001 | 9:55 a.m.

It's absurd, unscientific and makes a mockery of homeland security. The Department of Energy is proceeding on the Yucca Mountain dump as if Sept. 11, 2001, hadn't shown that terrorism is a risk. It is no longer theoretical that terrorists will attack any target.

The DOE, nuclear lobby, Nuclear Energy Institute and nuclear power producers have little regard for us or future generations. They want the nuclear waste removed from their 103 operating nuclear reactors and the three decommissioned sites. Operating plants still need a cooling pool and dry cask storage on site for future nuclear waste. There are 106 terrorist targets now, and if the waste were removed there still would be 106 targets, the power plants themselves.

Transporting the waste to Yucca Mountain, if it were scientifically suitable -- and it isn't -- would raise the potential targets to over 20,000 for decades. Just imagine truck convoys six times a day for decades! Rail is too dangerous since the Baltimore tunnel wreck, in which fire and water were involved, demonstrated the unacceptable risk.

The most economical and patriotic method is to leave the nuclear waste in dry cask storage, on site, where it has been stored safely for 44 years. The $11 billion waste fund will provide $90 million for hardening of the 106 sites plus future storage costs. The repository on site would be reinforced and buried, like bunkers are in ammunition dumps.

I hope that Tom Ridge, director of homeland security, stops the Yucca Mountain nuclear dump charade and forces the DOE to delay the report until the terrorist threat in the transportation of nuclear waste is evaluated.

FRANK PERNA