Saturday, February 22, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Team to assess risks of nuclear waste shipments

Casks, routes, health impacts to be studied

WASHINGTON -- The National Academy of Sciences is assembling a team of independent experts to examine the potential risks of shipping nuclear waste to a Yucca Mountain repository.

The two-year study, expected to be completed in 2005, will analyze a broad range of matters including transportation cask testing, selection of routes to the proposed burial site, possible health impacts and public perceptions of risk, an academy official said.

"We plan to take a holistic view of the issue," said Kevin Crowley, director of the academy's board of radioactive waste management.

The national academy was created by Congress in 1863 to advise the government on scientific and technical issues. Its recommendations are expected to carry weight as federal agencies formulate plans to move highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from power plants in 34 states to the proposed Yucca site.

"The academy is a gold standard and a fair broker," said David Blee, spokesman for the U.S. Transport Council, a coalition of companies that ship nuclear waste.

Crowley said the study will touch on defense nuclear materials, "but the elephant in the china shop is going to be the transportation of fuel to Yucca Mountain."

After reviewing the academy's plan, the director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects said he would view such a study "with a little grain of salt."

"It appears to us going in there is a built-in assumption that everything is OK and we need to fine tune how to communicate that to the public," Bob Loux said. "But giving them the benefit of the doubt, we want to see how the study proceeds."

The study board will convene meetings around the country, including a session in Las Vegas, Crowley said.

The 15-person group will include independent experts in risk assessment and risk communications, health physics, transportation operations, regulations and safety, public policy, social justice and nuclear security.

The $850,000 study is being paid for by the Energy Department, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Transportation, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, which is a state-administered fund, and the Electric Power Research Institute, an arm of the utility industry.

Last year, as Congress debated whether to designate the Nevada site for nuclear waste storage, critics of the Yucca program argued there was not enough information available about transportation risks to settle on the site.

Crowley said that only now are federal agencies focusing on waste transportation.