Yucca foes see hearing as opportunity

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, March 4, 2004 | 11:19 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A congressional committee will try to sort through the Energy Department's plans for shipping nuclear waste to Nevada at a hearing in Las Vegas on Friday.

Nevada lawmakers hope it will educate the four other members of Congress coming to the hearing about the state's concerns regarding the plan to store 77,000 tons of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. There is still a list of items to be accomplished before any transportation plan moves ahead.

In November the department released its 11-page strategic plan for moving spent nuclear fuel from 129 sites in 39 states to the proposed storage site at Yucca, outlining how it would involve states, local governments, tribes, utilities and the transportation industry in the process. The plan said parties of interest would have input on the selection of routes and methods of transportation, security issues, emergency response plan and other issues.

But a month later, before receiving formal comments from all of those groups and before notifying the state or the Nevada congressional delegation, the department announced it preferred the so-called Caliente corridor, which runs near Caliente, for rail shipment of the waste, complained Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.

"So much for the strategic plan," said Loux, who plans to testify at Friday's hearing. "I'm going to be talking about the faulty decision-making process involved with this."

The Energy Department hasn't made a formal decision on the rail line, but has said if it decides to ship the waste via rail it would use the Caliente route.

The department originally proposed five rail lines in Nevada in the Final Environmental Impact Statement released in February 2002. The other routes included one that would have started in Beowawe, east of Battle Mountain in north-central Nevada, one that would have gone through Jean, one that would have gone northeast of Las Vegas and another that would have gone through the Nellis Air Force Range.

Loux said there was no comparison to other routes or explanation as to why the Caliente route is preferred. He said that if the route was chosen to avoid the highly populated Las Vegas area, it could lead other major cities like Chicago, St. Louis, Salt Lake City and others wanting to opt out due to population, which could cause problems for the department.

Nevada is waiting for the department to make a formal announcement about a preferred method of shipping and selection of routes. After that, the department will need to do an environmental analysis and hold public meetings before the project can advance. Loux said the department predicts an 18- to 24-month process will be needed to select just the Nevada route.

He said doing the Nevada route first without knowing where it would be coming from leaves the project "somewhat dysfunctional" but the department has not indicated when it will name national routes.

"It will be helpful to have others come that are not from Nevada to hear about this and learn how DOE (the Energy Department) operates," Loux said.

Loux, and other critics of the Yucca Mountain project, point to the security risks associated with moving waste cross-country from sites mainly concentrated in East Coast states. The department says moving the waste is the best option. The nuclear industry maintains the waste is safe where it is now but will be safer in one secure location. Industry officials have downplayed any potential risks of moving the waste.

Under the law, the federal government is required to take the waste.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., brought up the project's increasing cost and transportation concerns at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee this morning with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, saying he was concerned about the Caliente route.

"Not a word of explanation has been offered to the ranchers whose land this line would intrude upon," Reid said. "It means that ranches that have been in operation since the time of the Civil War will be put out of business."

Reid asked Abraham what he was supposed to tell Gracian Uhalde, a rancher in northwestern Lincoln County whose land is in the middle of the proposed rail line. Abraham did not respond, and Reid said he would be submitting more questions to him to be answered for the record.

Rep. Jon Porter, who is vice chairman of the House Railroad Subcommittee, called the Las Vegas hearing and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., a member of the House Transportation Committee will be there along with subcommittee chairman Rep. Jack Quinn, R-N.Y., the panel's top Democrat, Rep. Corrine Brown of Florida, subcommittee member Rep. Julia Carson, D-Ind., and full committee member Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah.

That board has limited oversight of railroad construction and handles disputes on shipping rates, but it is unclear to officials there yet if it would be involved with the Yucca railroad. It has not been determined if the railroad line to Yucca will be a private, contractor-based rail line or a common carrier line that anyone could use.

If it is a private line, it would not fall under the board's jurisdiction, but the department would have to make an ample case that the board did not have to be involved, according to the board. Officials there are still watching the issue.

The department has not responded to repeated attempts to get more information on the transportation aspects of the project, so many unanswered questions remain. It is unclear who will be responsible for building the rail line, if it chooses that method, the estimated costs and other information.