Probe sought after waste leak

Suzanne Struglinski

Monday, Aug. 23, 2004 | 11:07 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Leaking sand from a truck moving radioactive waste from an Energy Department site closed an Arizona highway for about 45 minutes earlier this month, prompting Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to call for an investigation.

A truck hauling radioactive material from Paducah, Ky., to the Nevada Test Site starting leaking a kitty-litter type substance as it made its way across Arizona on Aug. 15. The westbound lanes of Interstate 40 in northern Arizona were closed until hazardous-materials personnel determined that the leaking material was not radioactive.

Napolitano wrote Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that she has "deep concerns" about the leak and wants it investigated.

"This event gives me grave concern that, even though no radioactive material was released, there appears to be a systemic weakness in your shipping and packaging procedures," Napolitano wrote.

The leak was of a sandlike, absorbent packing material and not the shipment of uranium tetraflouride being trucked to Nevada that had been leaking, according to the Arizona governor's office. Greg Cook, a spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs, the contractor that operates the Paducah facility, said the truck driver followed procedures. But he referred other questions to the Energy Department.

The material being shipped was different than the nuclear waste destined for Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, but Nevada's congressional delegation and state officials have pointed to potential problems with moving 77,000 tons of waste across the country for decades as part of their strategy to kill the project.

Bob Loux, executive director of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the shipments may be different but the incident "speaks to the issue that no matter how safe people say things are going to be or how prepared they are, things happen."

"To say these can be done without anything happening clearly is wrong and this is an example," Loux said.

David Cherry, spokesman for Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said transportation is the "permanent Achilles heel" of the project.

"You can make the leap and say if they can't handle the low-level waste shipments, doesn't that raise questions on how they will handle high-level waste?" Cherry said.

Cherry said the project's environmental impact statement says there are going to be accidents, but that it is hard to predict exactly what can take place.

Used nuclear fuel shipments would use a different container and would not have sand in them, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. The sand-augmented type of container is used for low-level waste. The reason for the leak still needs to be investigated, but people need to keep in mind that this not the same as a high-level waste shipment, spokeswoman Melanie Lyons said.

Other trucks traveling from Oak Ridge, Tenn., to the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, also have been found leaking the same packing material, Napolitano noted in the letter dated Wednesday.

Napolitano's letter also cited a December 1997 incident near Kingman in which water leaked from a truck carrying low-level radioactive waste from an Ohio nuclear weapons plant to Nevada. No radiation was found in the water.

The investigation into the 1997 shipment from the Ohio plant "revealed significant management weakness on the oversight of the waste packaging and shipping program," Napolitano wrote. "Due to the number of packages that leaked absorbent material from these shipments this week, it appears that a similar problem may now exist at Oak Ridge."

Calls this morning were not returned by the Energy Department headquarters in Washington, and calls to Bechtel Jacobs and the Paducah site were also referred to DOE headquarters.

In the letter Napolitano asked Abraham what steps were taken before the incident to ensure the safety of radioactive shipments and an explanation of whether those steps were followed.

She also asked for information about what notices are provided to state and local authorities about the shipments, how the Energy Department tracks and inspects the loads and the steps the agency will take to prevent future problems.

"The federal government has a responsibility to reassure the people of Arizona that the shipping of radioactive material on their roadways is done in the most secure way and that their safety is paramount," Napolitano wrote.

Napolitano spokeswoman Pati Urias said the leaking truck's driver pulled into a rest area west of Flagstaff after another driver in a group of trucks detected problems with his own load.

After pulling over and spotting the leak, the trucker called dispatchers, who contacted the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Urias said.

After the nature of the leak was determined and the load was resealed, the truck went on its way.

The Associated Press and Sun reporter Mary Manning contributed to this story.