Thursday, March 27, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
The train would go from Concord, Calif., across northern Nevada on its way to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory in August carrying spent fuel rods coming from the nuclear reactors of various Pacific Rim countries.
"Why are we taking other countries' nuclear waste?" Gibbons asked about 25 people at a town hall meeting in Eureka on Monday.
One train shipment could carry 10 times the radioactivity of the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, he said. Gibbons said he's unsure if the communities on the way have the capability to deal with a potential accident.
"You'd better do an environmental impact statement on each one of these communities before you do this plan. It's exactly what the federal government would require a private operator to do," Gibbons said.
Likewise, Gibbons reiterated his opposition to a plan to store nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, the Elko Daily Free Press reported..
"I don't think as a geologist that the design and safety standards of the site proposal meet the criteria," Gibbons said. "Right now, they can store it safely where it's at for the next 50, 60 years."
Shipping the nuclear waste to Nevada is only the beginning, he said. Landfill waste from California could be next. Sacramento already is considering just such a move involving the Lockwood dump east of Reno.
Before the town hall meeting, Gibbons met with Eureka County officials and representatives of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management over a plan to establish a forage bank that would set aside acreage for ranchers whose grazing allotments have been reduced due to range fires or other reasons.
"For the first time, these guys sat down with the people in Eureka County and the dialog started to take place," Gibbons said pointing to BLM officials in attendance.
Eureka County officials also asked the federal government for permission to set up a pilot program for the county to demonstrate management of its own public lands on a designated tract of land.
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