NRC to test nuke waste containers

Friday, Nov. 15, 2002 | 11:22 a.m.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the first time plans to do full-scale tests on two nuclear waste shipping containers that may transport highly radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain someday, an NRC expert said.

The commission will write a plan for testing one container for trains and the other for trucks early next year, Chester Poslusny, a project officer working on nuclear waste transportation, said on Thursday night. Nine designs for shipping containers are available, he said.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., says it's about time.

"Last year, I wrote a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission asking if they had ever done safety tests on nuclear waste transportation casks (and) the answer was no, they had only run simulations on computers and scale models," Reid said today.

"After that embarrassing incident, I am glad to see the NRC is finally planning some actual safety tests. But I am concerned that these tests will be used as a smokescreen to pacify the public."

Reid said he wanted to see "comprehensive, rigorous and through safety tests so we can determine whether the casks are strong enough to withstand accidents or terrorist attacks."

Poslusny said at a Yucca Mountain Education Project forum at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas that the tests would be conducted at Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, owned by the Energy Department, because it was the only facility capable of challenging the containers.

Bob Loux, director of the state Office of Nuclear Projects, said today that testing two containers is not a "commitment to a full-scale testing" of nuclear containers by the NRC. The state has asked for full-scale testing, arguing that the safety of the nation is at risk.

State officials have attacked the testing of the casks after it was shown that a missile could penetrate a container. Industry officials have debated the conclusions of the test, but Nevada officials say more work is required on the casks before waste is shipped. Loux said the commission promised, during testimony before the Senate, to conduct the testing of the containers. But, he said, "(The commission) is not going to do what they promised to do."

Loux said he and others proposed that groups get together to write the test procedures but that this proposal was rejected by the federal agency.

"We're not even getting half a loaf," said Loux. "We're getting one-tenth of a loaf."

Nevada officials have been asking the NRC to tighten the rules for shipping 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste to the mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and before Congress and President Bush approved the nuclear repository site earlier this year.

While each shipment by rail or road would have two security guards traveling with the radioactive load, after the terrorism attacks the NRC has been reviewing its safety requirements, Poslusny said.

Robert Halstead, a state transportation consultant, said Nevada had asked the NRC to consider terrorists attacking a nuclear shipment or stealing it on the way to Yucca Mountain as far back as 1999.

Seven guards or more may be necessary to protect larger containers moving across the country by rail, Halstead said. Currently, there is no railroad track to Yucca Mountain.

Poslusny said that the Energy Department does not know how many shipping containers it needs, how often they will ship or for how long. A federal national transportation plan could become available next year.

Curious university students came to hear the discussion Thursday night at the Marjorie Barrick Natural History Museum.

"Obviously, it affects all of us," anthropology major Mishell Moore said. "I am ignorant of what's in nuclear waste. What concerns me the most is they are so nonchalant about security for transportation.

"I would want military in front of and behind the truck."

Former truck driver and current anthropology major David Armstrong said he was concerned about possible earthquakes at a Yucca Mountain repository.

And terrorism seemed a bigger threat at a single site holding all the waste, he said.

"It would seem to me if anyone got to it, it would cause major damage," Armstrong said.

Sun reporters Cy Ryan and Ed Koch contributed to this story.