Saturday, April 03, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Ex-NTSB official discusses shipping issues
Former chairman calls for shipment of oldest waste first
By TONY BATT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- If and when nuclear waste is transported to Yucca Mountain, it would be safer to move the oldest waste first, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday.
But Jim Hall, who served as NTSB chairman from 1994 to 2001, said the Energy Department's contracts with nuclear utilities allow the newest radioactive spent fuel to be moved first to avoid the construction of new storage facilities at power plants.
Hall said the contracts should be amended. "I think anyone who has some knowledge in this area realizes the safest (spent nuclear) fuel at these (reactor) sites is the oldest fuel," he said.
DOE plans to begin moving 77,000 tons of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, by 2010.
Hall and John Vincent, a senior project manager for the Nuclear Energy Institute, spoke about the transportation of nuclear waste at a briefing for about 35 congressional staffers on Capitol Hill.
Hall and Vincent agreed that when nuclear waste is shipped to Nevada, the preferred mode would be trains, which would not carry any other hazardous substances.
"This is almost a no-brainer," Hall said. "A dedicated train can make a trip across the United States to Yucca Mountain in three to four days. A regular train would take seven to eight, obviously increasing the risk."
Hall cited a July 2001 crash in Baltimore in which a train hauling hazardous material derailed in a tunnel, causing a fire that shut down part of the city for more than a week.
However, Vincent noted that a Nuclear Regulatory Commission study concluded that if waste casks had been on the train in Baltimore, they would not have failed even if they had remained in the fire for 30 years.
"The state of Nevada would propose that we test every new design of the nuclear casks," Vincent said. "The industry does not believe that's necessary. We've done a considerable amount of testing."
But Hall pointed out that the Energy Department designated Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste storage more than two years ago and still doesn't have a transportation plan.
"And I personally believe you have a right to know and a responsibility to your constituents to be sure that if this material is moved through your district, it is done in a safe fashion," Hall told the congressional aides.
