Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Lincoln County meeting tackles proposed rail route

Lincoln County commissioners were expecting a lively meeting this morning as residents got their first opportunity to speak out on the proposed rail line that would bring highly radioactive waste through the county on the way to Yucca Mountain.

The Energy Department on Dec. 23 announced it would recommend that nuclear waste headed to Yucca Mountain be shipped by rail through Caliente, across Lincoln County, north of the Nevada Test Site and west of the Nellis Air Force Base Bombing Range to its destination 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The plan appears on the Lincoln County Commission's agenda today for discussion.

Lincoln County Commissioner Hal Keaton said the timing, just two days before Christmas, was suspect. "It doesn't give anyone the chance to respond," Heaton said. "Good for them to get the word out with no immediate reaction."

As a result, he said, many Lincoln County residents hadn't heard the news as late as last week.

"I was at a social function New Year's and didn't hear anything from anyone," he said. "I don't think anyone found out until (Friday). The local newspaper just published the news on the front page (Friday). I think people may read it today and certainly have something to say about it."

Lincoln County Clerk Corrine Hogan said she had not heard much feedback yet, but "I'm sure there are probably a lot of concerns."

A couple of residents said they planned to make their voices heard.

Lincoln County resident Louis Benezet, a longtime opponent of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, said he is asking Keaton to ask for hearings by the Bureau of Land Management in Lincoln County.

The Energy Department has asked the BLM to stop mining claims and other uses of the property along the proposed rail corridor.

"I really don't know what's going to come out of the meeting," Benezet said. "We don't know what impacts from a rail route would be. We don't even know where the rail route would be."

Benezet said he suspects that Congress will agree to ship nuclear waste by truck in five years or so, when the option of a railroad track becomes to expensive to build.

"If they (DOE) selected Lincoln County, why? It's because Lincoln County officials lobbied for it," Benezet said. "Officials never tell Lincoln County residents what they say back in Washington, D.C.

"I think the public is just as concerned in Lincoln County as they are in any other county."

Lincoln County resident Marge Detraz, another longtime opponent of the nuclear waste dump, said she would demand that Lincoln County commissioners stop attending secret meetings with the Energy Department. Lincoln County Commissioners Tommy Rowe and Commission Chairman Spencer Hafen attended meetings with Margaret Chu, the Energy Department's top official overseeing Yucca Mountain, and other department officials, Detraz said.

"I'm going to demand those two commissioners no longer attend those secret meetings," Detraz said.

Late last year the commissioners met with Chu in Amargosa Valley in Nye County and at McCarran International Airport as late as Dec. 7.

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