Ex-NTSB official seeks Yucca vote delay

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, May 21, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate should not vote on Yucca Mountain until nuclear waste shipping containers are tested further, the former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said today.

Former NTSB chief Jim Hall said that if Yucca Mountain is constructed, the Energy Department would have to launch an unprecedented waste shipping campaign to transport waste from 131 sites nationwide to Nevada in what could be the toughest transportation safety challenge of the 21st century.

"We need to look at a full risk assessment; we need to look at what can go wrong and what is the likelihood of something going wrong and look at the consequences," Hall said.

Hall served for seven years with the NTSB, primarily as chairman. The agency is charged by Congress to investigate airline accidents and other major transportation accidents. The board studies transportation safety issues and makes recommendations for preventing future accidents.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., drafted Hall about a month ago to help trumpet the message that transporting high-level nuclear waste to Yucca would be dangerous.

Hall was retained by Nevada officials to bring his credibility and expertise to the transportation debate, Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects Director Bob Loux said. Hall is being paid $100,000 from Nevada's anti-Yucca fund, a collection of state and private money, Loux said.

Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., are engaged in a high-stakes battle to convince senators to oppose the proposal to ship the nation's most radioactive waste to the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas for permanent burial. A vote is expected in July.

Hall sent a letter today to senators urging them to delay a Yucca vote. It was a big request -- the Senate is required by law to vote within 90 days of Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the project. Guinn filed the veto April 8.

Hall argues that the DOE was irresponsible in seeking congressional approval for Yucca Mountain with no detailed plans for transportation, including shipping methods, routes and accident preparedness.

"In light of Sept. 11, this lack of a comprehensive, well thought-out plan is, in a word, appalling," Hall said in his letter.

Hall briefed reporters today, saying he wanted to increase the media attention nationwide on waste shipping. Hall said he was not against nuclear power and said he had taken no personal stance on Yucca Mountain.

New designs of steel containers used to haul waste are being developed for use in the Yucca shipping campaign. Scale-model tests, along with computer simulations, have been overseen by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which regulates the containers.

But Nevada officials since 1999 have said full-scale crash, burn and drop tests are needed.

"Anything you can say about past performance frankly doesn't mean much in this brave new world that the DOE is pushing us into," said Bob Halstead, a waste shipping expert hired by Nevada officials.

Scale-models and computers cannot reveal exactly how the containers would hold up in a terrorist attack or accident, Hall agreed.

About 3,000 shipments of high-level nuclear waste have been made safely since the 1960s, nuclear industry officials say. But Hall said the sheer volume of waste headed to Yucca creates unprecedented challenges.

"The number of things that can go wrong will increase exponentially," Hall said in his letter.

Hall also told reporters he had "great reservations" about the DOE's ability to manage preparations for a massive waste shipping campaign that is expected to take several decades. He said DOE officials are too invested in the project to be objective in setting strict safety standards.

Still, Hall said federal agencies are capable of preparing local and state governments for waste shipping accidents -- if they invest the time and money, which has not happened yet.

Hall is scheduled to make his arguments to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Thursday during a Yucca Mountain hearing.

Nuclear industry officials, including Melanie Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, brushed off Hall's call for a vote delay. They argue that scale-model and computer testing offer sophisticated, highly accurate predictions about how waste containers would hold up in real-world accidents.

They also point to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which may conduct full-scale tests by 2004 as part of a new review of container strength. But full-scale tests have not received final approvals, an NRC spokeswoman said today.

Any doubts about casks can be dispelled, nuclear industry consultant Eileen Supko said today.

"There is more than enough time prior to the start of shipments to address a whole range of questions," Supko said.

Nevada officials made Hall chairman of what they are calling the Transportation Safety Coalition, which opposes waste shipments to Yucca. It includes: the American Public Health Association; Environmental Working Group; National Environmental Trust; Physicians for Social Responsibility; U.S. PIRG; and Nevada's own Yucca watchdog, the state Agency for Nuclear Projects.

Hall, a Tennessee native and resident who lives near a nuclear plant that produces electricity for his part of the state, was appointed to the NTSB in 1993 by President Clinton. Hall was the on-scene board member for a number of high-profile accident investigations, including the January 1994 Ringling Brothers Circus train derailment in Florida; the August 1997 Amtrak accident in Kingman, Ariz.; and the single-engine plane crash in July 1999 that killed John F. Kennedy Jr. and wife, Carolyn.