Monday, April 05, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Railroad secrecy irks state

Officials set aside more than 300 miles of Nevada land for hauling nuclear waste

The Department of Energy has kept ranchers, miners and rural Nevada residents in the dark about its plan to withdraw more than 300 miles of public land to study a rail corridor for hauling nuclear waste from Caliente to Yucca Mountain, state officials contend in comments about the proposal.

"For most, if not all, of the ranchers impacted by this action, the first indication they had that such an action was contemplated was the December 29th Federal Register notice," the state Nuclear Projects Agency said in written comments last week to the Bureau of Land Management.

The agency, led by Bob Loux, said the BLM "has a proactive responsibility" to ensure that the Energy Department has told affected parties about its plans and potential effects "and has sought their input prior to having made the request for withdrawal. In this regard, both the BLM and the DOE have been derelict in their duties and responsibilities."

At least one rancher, Joe B. Fallini Jr., has submitted written comments that align with the state's concerns.

"Why was the Twin Springs Ranch, clearly an affected party, never notified or invited to these public hearings?" Fallini asked in a six-page letter to the BLM, referring to numerous hearings he said were held regarding a preferred rail route.

In all, Fallini seeks answers to 23 questions about DOE's planned rail corridor.

The state submitted its 16-page document as the comment period on the land withdrawal notice closed a week ago today.

The submitted comments are general in nature, but Loux said they are aimed at laying the groundwork for possible legal challenges over what the state contends is DOE's reluctance to follow the National Environmental Policy Act.

In a telephone interview last week, Loux said the state's biggest concern is the length of time for the corridor withdrawal, 20 years.

He said the feasibility of building a rail spur still is embryonic. And he said DOE lacks a national transportation strategy to carry out its plan to ship 77,000 tons of radioactive defense waste and spent nuclear fuel from U.S. commercial power reactors to a yet-to-be-constructed repository in Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"They're doing a lot of disruption of a lot of people's lives in central Nevada. ... It's not necessary to withdraw this land for 20 years," Loux said.

A state BLM official, realty specialist Dennis Samuelson, said his office has received about 50 written comments on land-withdrawal requests, including the state's document. All the comments will be forwarded for the Department of Energy to address.

Allen Benson, a spokesman for the DOE's Office of Repository Development, said department officials haven't seen the state's document and can't comment on it. He said the department hasn't reached a final decision on the Caliente corridor or the mostly rail transportation mode.

Although the 319-mile Caliente corridor is 1 mile wide, Benson said, the actual right-of-way needed for a rail line would be "a couple hundred feet."

He said the department is following the law "and will continue to follow all the procedures that are required" for siting a rail spur to Yucca Mountain.

Because the Energy Department is not sure it can get a rail spur built in time for the repository's targeted opening in 2010, federal officials said last week they are considering trucking casks of spent fuel assemblies to the mountain from a rail-transfer station in the Caliente area during the first six years of a shipping campaign.

That plan hinges on whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issues the DOE licenses to build and operate the repository and take possession of the waste. The Energy Department intends to submit its license application by the end of this year.

Nevada officials claim a 1-mile-wide corridor is "wildly excessive."

"A corridor a quarter of a mile wide, or even less, would still provide more than enough land for conducting studies and for constructing and operating the proposed rail line," according to the state's comments.

According to the BLM, the rail corridor would cut across two wilderness study areas, Weepah Spring and South Reveille, and would come within about a mile of two other wilderness study areas.

Samuelson, the BLM realty specialist, said the Energy Department will have to address impacts of a rail corridor on such wild lands. "The way I understand it, Congress would have to release those areas for a rail line," he said.

State officials raised concerns about the potential for environmental damage from thousands of rail shipments during a 40-year, nuclear waste transportation campaign.

"An accident involving release of this material could result in massive and long-lasting environmental damage," state officials said. "Even without an accident, repeated exposure to routine radiation being emitted by the shipping containers over long periods of time can result in negative health consequences.

"The mere fact that the land will be used as a nuclear waste transportation corridor also has the potential to stigmatize both the withdrawn land and surrounding areas, having potential effects on property values and other economic impacts."