Plans to guard shipments questioned

Tuesday, April 20, 2004 | 9:34 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A federal official expressed doubt Monday that the Energy Department has developed plans to guard against terrorist attacks on trains or trucks loaded with nuclear waste bound for Yucca Mountain.

Mark Abkowitz, a member of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, told the Legislative Committee on High-Level Radioactive Waste that the review board is to oversee the Energy Department.

He said he was not sure if the Energy Department has "fully explored" the new ways terrorists can attack these shipments.

Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, asked Abkowitz if he was saying the Energy Department has not planned for the "worst-case scenario."

Abkowitz said, "We don't know."

The Energy Department is supposed to share information with the review board, which can make suggestions but has no authority over the department. It reports directly to Congress.

But the Energy Department's J. Gary Lanthrum told the subcommittee the department will meet or exceed the security requirements of the Department of Transportation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He said the security measures are "not set in stone" and added he thinks they will be changed by the scheduled time the nuclear repository is opened in 2010.

"We're still a ways from the first shipment," said Lanthrum, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management's Office of National Transportation.

Lanthrum said in the last 30 years there have been 3,000 shipments of spent fuel and "there has never been a release of radiation." While there have been accidents involving trucks carrying the fuel, he said the casks have never been breached.

Abkowitz said the Energy Department can claim a "totally safe record" but that is "comparing applies to oranges" when talking about high-level nuclear waste.

The proposed schedule for opening Yucca Mountain by 2010 is "extremely ambitious," said Abkowitz. He estimated it would take three to four years to finish the cask design and to produce the casks in which to haul the radioactive materials.

It will also take time to build a rail line to carry the waste into Yucca Mountain, Abkowitz said.

He suggested the department may have to use trucks to transport the first shipments to Yucca Mountain while the rail line is completed.

Lanthrum said the department is committed to a 2010 opening for Yucca Mountain. He said the department will accept bids soon for the "conceptual design" of the rail line and make a final decision in December 2005.

He said there will be some truck shipments. But the state of Nevada has not yet designated the preferred highway routes. If the state doesn't make a decision, then the trucks will most likely use the interstate freeway system, he said.

Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, asked whether escort vehicles would provide security for the waste-laden trucks. He said that would identify the trucks as carrying nuclear materials. But Lanthrum said there are ways to have escort vehicles without anybody knowing it.

Lanthrum also told the committee that the Energy Department has met with manufacturers of casks that would be used to carry the waste aboard the trains and trucks. He said a new design will be needed but he added it "was not likely the materials will be changed." He estimated the cost at $3 million to $5 million per cask.

After each shipment, there will be required maintenance on each cask. He said a facility could be set up near Yucca Mountain to perform this work. Other potential economic benefits to the area could include construction of rail and truck maintenance stations, a fuel depot, communication center, a transfer center facility and possibly a visitor's center, he said.

Neal told Lanthrum that Nevada ought to get the jobs resulting from the designation of Yucca Mountain. He said he was among those who believed the state would not be able to stop the dump but "we ought to get the benefits." He added, "Hopefully you will not sidetrack Nevada."

There are scoping hearings for the environmental impact statement on transportation set for May 3-5 in Amargosa Valley, Goldfield and Caliente. The state has asked for additional hearings to get the concerns of Nevadans in Las Vegas and Reno.

Lanthrum said the department is seriously considering the request and a decision will probably come this week.