Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Transport safety questioned

Nevadans say feds are underestimating difficulties of shipping nuclear waste

WASHINGTON -- A group of Nevada experts laid out the state's case on nuclear waste transportation before a government advisory panel Tuesday.

The experts said the Energy Department is underestimating the difficulties of devising a strategy to ship radioactive materials to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository.

The state's nuclear waste chief and five paid consultants outlined challenges facing the Yucca Mountain Project, including developing a railroad line to the repository site, devising a combination of rail and truck shipments, and safety testing the design of casks to be utilized in moving spent nuclear fuel from sites in 39 states.

"We ask that when you hear glib assurances from the department or any other party that they know exactly how the transportation system to Yucca Mountain will work, that you take that with a grain of salt," said Robert Halstead, Nevada's principal transportation adviser.

The Nevada consultants delivered a four-hour presentation to the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste, which monitors the Yucca program for members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Echoing past criticism, the Nevadans said it probably will take more than the 175 nuclear waste shipments per year that DOE estimates to fill the repository planned for 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The DOE figures "grossly underestimate the nature, magnitude and scope required to support the repository program," said Bob Loux, head of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects.

"This is all what we've heard before. There's nothing new here," said Allen Benson, Yucca Mountain Project spokesman. Benson said Nevada's estimates are inflated based on assumptions that the repository will hold more waste than currently planned.

Halstead contended that the Energy Department will be handicapped in developing a rail line to Yucca Mountain because routes through Southern Nevada will run afoul of private development. The Air Force will declare the Nellis range unsuitable for a proposed route, while rough terrain and environmental issues will hamper suggested routes from Carlin and Caliente, he added.

As the Nevadans discussed the risks associated with nuclear waste transportation, advisory board member B. John Garrick noted that hazardous materials already travel through Las Vegas and other cities largely unnoticed.

Garrick said nuclear waste should be put in that context. He warned against "putting too much emphasis" on analyzing consequences of potential accidents without also weighing their risk in the first place. "We can lead the public down the wrong path very easily," he said.

Among other topics, a divide emerged between Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff and Nevada experts over analysis of the July 21, 2001, train derailment and subsequent fire in the Howard Street tunnel in Baltimore.

A Nevada analysis concluded that radioactive particles would have been released into the surrounding neighborhoods if the trapped cars had been carrying canisters of nuclear waste.

The state's findings contrast with two studies released by the NRC in March. Those concluded that a nuclear waste cask would have withstood fire conditions in the tunnel that were calculated to have reached 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

A thermal analysis by NRC staff, coordinated with the National Transportation Safety Board, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analysis and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, "concluded there would be no release of radioactive materials."

Marvin Resnikoff, a nuclear physicist and Nevada consultant, challenged the NRC studies, saying the Baltimore fire burned hotter than nuclear waste casks are designed to withstand.

Halstead said Nevada analysts have been in a "running dispute with the NRC" over availability of data that the agency used in its study. A meeting has been set for May 8 to compare the reports. he said.

Halstead also said Nevada is forming a proposal for testing cask designs against severe fire. The plan will be presented to NRC scientists forming full-scale tests for several nuclear waste shipping casks.