Wednesday, March 19, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
A U.S. Department of Energy plan to truck 110 tons of foreign nuclear waste through Northern Nevada has the state's senators seeing red.
"Not only have there been no hearings conducted for residents along the transportation routes, but it appears that many Nevada towns scheduled to have waste come through were left out of recent emergency management-training workshops and planning meetings by the Department of Energy," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., added: "Unfortunately, keeping affected communities out of the loop has become the modus operandi for the Department of Energy. ... It should never be acceptable that communities along the transportation routes are left without knowing of the shipments or are ill-prepared to deal with emergencies that could occur."
The DOE plans to ship 38 containers of highly enriched uranium waste from Taiwan, Korea and Japan through Nevada this summer.
The 110 tons of high-level waste will be shipped by boat to Concord, Calif., where it will then be sent through Nevada for temporary storage at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.
The DOE has ordered an environmental impact statement and conducted hearings at the port city in California and the final destination in Idaho, but there were no hearings for states and towns along the proposed routes.
"Cities like Reno and Sparks should not be put at risk by these shipments," Bryan said. "Transportation of nuclear waste is fraught with peril when it is sent through communities that have not received the proper training to deal with the accident. If the recent floods have taught us anything, it is that we need to be prepared for the worst. DOE instead has chosen to move forward without holding public hearings and providing the necessary training. Once again, DOE has left Nevada in the dark."
Said Reid: "Right now, due to the floods, high-level nuclear waste is scheduled to travel right through downtown Reno and Sparks. City officials are having a tough enough time handling increased train traffic from the Union Pacific merger without having to deal with a potential deadly accident involving uranium."
The senators said that by keeping Nevada officials in the dark about these proposed shipments, the DOE is acting counter to the advice of the chairman of their own Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, who testified at a recent Senate hearing that the country was not ready to undertake the transport of high-level nuclear waste.
They also underscored that they will use this action by the DOE to make their case against the interim nuclear storage bill pending in the Senate. The bill would store the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"Transportation of nuclear waste is one of the principal reasons other senators cite for supporting us in our fight to stop the nuke dump," the senators said. "We cannot railroad nuke waste down the throats of small-town America or try and sneak it past them in the dark of the night."
Bryan and Reid are exploring options with the DOE and Gov. Bob Miller's office to halt the shipments, including sending a letter to new Energy Secretary Federico Pena.
"The state of California is expected to file a lawsuit to stop these shipments, and that is certainly an option we shouldn't rule out," the senators said in a news release. "At the very least, we must ensure that all towns along the transportation route receive emergency disaster training and that every alternative route has been considered."
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