Editorial: Lagging logistics

Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2004 | 9:11 a.m.

The same year that Congress zeroed in on Southern Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the only potential site for burying the nation's high-level nuclear waste, it created a panel to conduct independent analysis of the Energy Department's burial plan. Known as the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, the 11-member panel periodically issues reports about all phases of the plan to bury at least 77,000 tons of lethal waste 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

In its latest assessment, the Review Board noted a problem that this newspaper has been writing about for years. In a letter to the Energy Department, the board noted the lack of a "detailed strategic plan" for transporting the waste to Nevada from nuclear power plants all over the country. The board expressed concern that because transportation planning is lagging, important safeguards could be "overlooked" as the Energy Department rushes to meets its deadline of beginning shipments to Yucca Mountain in about five years.

"It is important for the Energy Department to develop specific logistical plans ..." the Review Board wrote.

We realize the public will be up in arms when the plans show how close the shipments will pass by their homes and schools. That, however, is no reason to delay the plans. It's all the more reason to get them developed, so that people and local governments all over the country will have time to understand the full potential of Yucca Mountain.