Editorial: Arrogant as ever

Monday, Nov. 20, 2006 | 7:32 a.m.

T he U.S. Energy Department never ceases to amaze us with its convoluted logic, poor judgment and arrogance.

It is no secret that the department has been trucking low-level nuclear waste - clothing and other material used in nuclear work - to the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. But what is secret is the trucks' schedules, and it's a tightly held secret. Even local officials, who would have to scramble fire, police and rescue crews should there be an accident, don't know.

It's because the Energy Department doesn't have to, so it doesn't.

"Is there a reason that we should?" Test Site spokesman Darwin Morgan asked in a story in Friday's Las Vegas Sun by Mark Hansel.

Morgan noted that hazardous waste comes through town on marked trucks all the time and authorities aren't notified.

"The trucks (carrying nuclear waste) are marked," he said.

If that came from any other source but the Energy Department, it would be surprising in its brazen show of arrogance. But this is an agency that wants to put 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste, the deadliest stuff on Earth, on trucks and trains to Nevada and then stuff it into Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The fact that federal officials don't see a reason to cooperate with local authorities is a perfect example of why many Nevadans don't trust the Energy Department. If the department won't cooperate on these low-level waste shipments, what will it do if the high-level waste ever comes through?

The Energy Department could build some trust with the community, which it sorely lacks, by sharing basic information with local officials that could help in an accident. Not doing so - because they don't have to - is arrogant, short-sighted and dismissive of the hazards.

Of 362 low-level waste shipments over a three-month period, 313 trucks went up Interstate 15 to State Route 160, the highly congested and still-under-construction Blue Diamond Road. What could go wrong?

Do we have to tell you?