Nuclear waste could move by truck

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, March 31, 2004 | 11:43 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has evaluated if it can move nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain via truck through Nevada if a new rail line cannot be finished in time, documents show.

A seven-page memo issued March 10 from Gary Lanthrum, director the office of National Transportation at Yucca Mountain, includes an analysis that studies how to get spent nuclear fuel to Yucca "if a new rail line in Nevada were not completed by the time a repository at Yucca Mountain were licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," according to the memo.

The department plans to accept waste at the site by 2010.

The Energy Department has said in the past it prefers the "mostly rail" option, in which waste would be shipped to Nevada mainly via train. The department has not yet issued its final decision on which specific mode of transportation it will use.

To get the nuclear waste to the proposed storage site at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, it could use legal-weight trucks, heavy-haul trucks or transfer waste to another rail line.

The analysis showed that using a national rail plan but moving the waste to the site in Nevada via lightweight truck would still fall under an environmental impact statement done in 2002.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said today that based on recent truck accidents, there is bound to be some type of accident when this waste starts moving across the country.

"This is more than a truckload of fertilizer," Reid said.

The nuclear industry maintains that the shipping spent fuel is safe, with even the one of the worst case scenario tests releasing just a few ounces of radioactive material.