State says feds underestimate effect of nuke attack

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 9:49 a.m.

The Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, which opposes a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, has reviewed a federal study released Thursday and concluded it underestimated the consequences of a terrorist attack on nuclear shipments.

The state's consultant took issue with the number of casualties from an attack on truck or rail casks and and the economic consequences.

The study by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, "may have significantly underestimated the human health and economic consequences of a successful attack on a spent fuel shipping cask," state transportation consultant Robert Halstead said.

The state is preparing a detailed analysis of the GAO report, Halstead said.

The report released Thursday said that the Energy Department has options to increase safety of the waste set to go to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The department plans to store 77,000 tons of nuclear spent fuel at the site, which the GAO called "one of the most hazardous materials made by man."

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, reviewed federal studies that assessed potential health effects of a terrorist attack or severe accident on spent fuel storage or transit at the request of Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy and Air Quality subcommittee, after increased concern about security following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The state hired Radioactive Waste Management Associates of New York to analyze estimated sabotage or terrorist impacts, using Energy Department data.

An attack with a common military shell on a truck container carrying waste would result in 48 latent cancer deaths, the DOE concluded.

However, the state study indicated 300 to 1,800 latent cancer fatalities from a single blast. If a state-of-the-art anti-tank weapon were used, 3,000 to 18,000 latent cancer deaths could occur, Halstead said.

Estimating the radiation released from an attack on a single rail cask indicated contamination spread over 32 square miles, Halstead said.

Cleanup would cost an estimated $13.7 billion and failing to properly clean up the contaminated area would result in 4,000 to 28,000 cancer deaths over 50 years, the state study said. In the first year between 200 and 1,400 cancer fatalities could be expected.

Robin Nazzaro, GAO director of Natural Resources and Environment, said that studies by the DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission "have consistently found that the likelihood of widespread harm to human health from a terrorist attack or a severe accident involving spent nuclear fuel is low."