Editorial: Nuke barge idea takes on water

Wednesday, March 20, 2002 | 9:04 a.m.

A Department of Energy report says that if Yucca Mountain is opened as a nuclear waste dump, about one-fourth of the nation's radioactive waste could pass through sea and river ports before it reaches its ultimate destination in Nevada. Gannett News Service reported Tuesday that if the plan eventually is put in place, over a 38-year-period 21,572 tons of nuclear waste would be shipped on barges through 15 commercial ports located on both coasts, three major rivers and Lake Michigan. Sending nuclear waste to Nevada by train and truck, over thousands of miles, is dangerous enough considering the prospect of accidents and terrorist attacks. But shipping man's deadliest waste over water on a barge? They might as well paint bull's-eyes on the lumbering vessels for terrorists.

For years the Department of Energy has avoided providing details of what routes, and by what means, it would ship 77,000 tons of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. Keeping a lid on that information effectively has isolated Nevada in the debate over nuclear waste storage. Other states don't feel immediately affected if they're not told nuclear waste likely will travel through their cities and towns. If there is a silver lining to the revelation about the barges, it is that it could build opposition in Congress to the construction of a nuclear waste dump.

Since Sept. 11 there has been considerable discussion about just how easy it is to penetrate our loosely guarded ports and how vulnerable they are to terrorist attacks. For the federal government to even contemplate sending nuclear waste by barges confirms yet again just how flawed the thinking has been of those who advocate turning Yucca Mountain into the nation's dumping ground for nuclear waste.