Editorial: Suit adds to concern over Yucca

Monday, May 17, 2004 | 8:59 a.m.

A federal lawsuit filed by employees and former employees of Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad is cause for even more concern about shipping nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. Filed in Iowa May 12 by two unions and several individuals, the lawsuit alleges the railroad routinely violates standard safety procedures. Because Burlington Northern regularly handles shipments of hazardous materials, the lawsuit raises the possibility that the railroad could one day be selected by the Energy Department to transport high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain.

Plaintiffs say that Burlington Northern managers are representing the railroad to the Energy Department as one that has "good and proven" safety systems. In fact, the suit contends, employees have been ordered to bypass safety rules in order for the railroad to "be more more profitable when train departures and overall operations can be expedited. Many trains are leaving with both known and unknown defects in equipment."

Burlington Northern declined comment on the suit. And an Energy Department spokesman told the Sun's Washington reporter, Suzanne Struglinski, that no rail lines have been selected to move waste to Yucca Mountain. He repeated the department's pat answer to transportation questions, saying that "all the safety elements are still under development." Yet the lawsuit contends that the Energy Department, which has previously said most shipments to Yucca will be by rail, is pointing to Burlington Northern's "good and proven" safety systems as examples of why transportation will be safe.

"(The Energy Department) is wrong," the suit states. "It is not safe to move nuclear waste by rail across the BNSF. (The Energy Department) would not enter into contracts if it knew the truth of the unsafe conditions of BNSF operations."

Because of the serious allegations raised by the lawsuit, we hope it goes to public trial, as opposed to ending with a secret settlement. In the end, however, the realization that nuclear waste cannot be transported across the country for decade after decade without a catastrophe shouldn't have to hinge on a lawsuit. Common sense is all that's needed.