Friday, June 03, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Hazardous materials discussed
Mayor urges restrictions on shipping radioactive waste, other noxious materials
By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman joined other local officials Thursday in bashing the Department of Energy's plans for transporting nuclear waste through Southern Nevada for disposal in Yucca Mountain, saying he would like state lawmakers to adopt a more compelling law against it.
Appearing on a six-member panel that was part of a transportation conference hosted by Clark County and UNLV, Goodman called for expanding the city's ordinance that prohibits highly radioactive waste truck shipments to include rail shipments.
Goodman said he also seeks prior notification of all noxious materials passing through Las Vegas.
He urged mayors of North Las Vegas, Boulder City, Henderson and Mesquite to join him in pressing state legislators to pass a similar measure.
"If it's unconstitutional, let the courts tell us," Goodman said, referring to a Washington, D.C., measure against rail shipments of hazardous materials near the Capitol.
A U.S. District Court judge upheld the law in April, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia temporarily barred enforcement of it.
Goodman and North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon said they view accidents involving spent nuclear fuel as more realistic than a terrorist attack aimed at nuclear waste shipments.
"While terrorism is always a threat, an accident is a far greater issue than a missile hitting one of those things," Montandon said.
Goodman said afterward, "I have never had any information deemed credible that Las Vegas is a (terrorist) target."
Goodman said the federal government's failure to make the rail industry give advance notice of shipments of chlorine and other noxious materials passing through the Las Vegas Valley is the biggest threat against local transportation systems.
"There is a certain arrogance on the part of the federal government. They refuse to tell us," he said.
A Department of Energy official who attended the conference at The Orleans, emergency management specialist Susan Dalton, deferred comments to DOE spokesman Allen Benson.
Reached late Thursday, Benson noted that the two-day conference was funded by the Yucca Mountain Project.
"The department, of course, is always pleased to get input on any proposals that the state of Nevada and local governments would have with respect to transportation and planning," he said.
