Dispatch center to coordinate radioactive waste transport

KINGMAN, Ariz. — A company based in Washington state is establishing a trucking dispatch center in northwest Arizona to coordinate transporting of low-level radioactive waste throughout the country for disposal at the Nevada National Security Site 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Owner Gloria Mortrud said Specialized Services Trucking has a contract with the Department of Energy to transport the hazardous materials from 15 different states. The company is leasing a former Bureau of Land Management building in Kingman from a private owner to dispatch tractors to sites where the materials are packaged in casks that are pre-loaded on trailers. The waste will not be transported through Kingman and instead will be trucked into Nevada on Interstate 15.

CEO Stacy Rayford said the company is holding a job fair today in Kingman as it tries to hire as many as 175 people, most of them truck drivers. She said as many as 500 people could be hired within the first year of operation.

Rayford said the hauling could begin early next month with use of about 24 big rigs. She said as many as 100 trucks could eventually be used in the operation.

Rayford said the company will be hauling from former laboratories in Nevada, California, New Mexico, Utah, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, New York, Georgia, Virginia, Illinois, Ohio and Washington state. National Security Site spokesman Darwin Morgan confirmed that the labs identified by Rayford are sites from which waste product would be transported to the Nevada facility.

Morgan said the labs formerly supported the Department of Energy weapons complex and that materials including dirt, equipment and clothing from those facilities is stored at the low-level radioactive waste management complex.

Rayford said Kingman was selected for the dispatch center because the BLM facility met several specifications for the government bid. Those included proximity to Nevada, a fenced yard and sufficient facility square footage with amenities such as showers.