Massive nuclear plant assembly to be shipped through Nevada

WASHINGTON - A massive, slightly radioactive piece of steam generator dismantled from a nuclear power plant in Southern California is scheduled to roll very deliberately across rural Nevada next week on its way to a dump in Utah.

The 398-ton steel assembly departed the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station on Nov. 5.

It is expected to take three weeks to cart it aboard a 400-foot-long trailer to a disposal site about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City.

Officials with Southern California Edison, which operates the San Onofre plant on the coast north of San Diego, said the equipment was slightly radioactive but posed no health hazard to the public.

"If you stood next to it for an hour, you would get the same amount of radioactivity as you do in a dental X-ray," spokesman Scott Andresen said.

The shipment and an accompanying convoy was traveling no more than 25 mph along the 830-mile route, officials said.

It was journeying only at night along highways in San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, but was expected to travel during the day when it reaches Nevada.

The 192-wheel tractor-trailer is expected to cross into the state early Thursday on U.S. HIghway 6 in Mineral County, and will stop a few miles into the state for a crew change and to be greeted by Nevada Highway Patrol escorts, according to Jeff Richter, permit manager for overdimensional vehicles at the Nevada Department of Transportation.

The journey was scheduled to resume on Saturday. Over the next four to five days, the cargo will travel on U.S. 6 through Tonopah and Ely and then head north on U.S. Highway 93 to West Wendover. Its destination is the Energy Solutions disposal area for low-level radioactive waste at Clive, Utah.

Some road signs and traffic lights in Tonopah and Ely will be taken down temporarily to accommodate the 17-foot tall, 20-foot wide load, Richter said.

The specially built trailer was constructed with 48 independent axles, enabling it to make sharp turns. The combined weight of the transporter and its cargo is roughly 1.5 million pounds.

Six semi-tractors are in the convoy and can be used in combination to pull and push the trailer.

"It can be pulled by one semi and pushed by up to four, or pulled by two and pushed by two," Andresen said. "It just depends on the power they need and the grade of the road. Sometimes we don't need all of them hooked up."

Longer than a football field, the trailer is expected to draw onlookers in the communities it passes through.

"In Tonopah it becomes local news," Richter said. "People will show up like it's a parade."

The assembly was part of San Onofre's original generators that were retired and replaced in 2009. It is the third of four oversized waste shipments from the plant to Utah.

Earlier shipments in August and October of 2011 were made without incident, officials said.

The fourth and final piece of the nuclear plant is expected to be shipped before the end of the year.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.