Nuclear spill would 'overwhelm' Las Vegas

Rescue crews attempting to contain a simulated nuclear spill at rush hour on Las Vegas freeways have discovered they have too little equipment to detect radiation and decontaminate accident victims.

"Our resources would be overwhelmed," Battalion Chief Douglas Johnson of the Las Vegas Fire Department said during a table top exercise Wednesday.

For example, only two monitors are available statewide to detect radiation levels in an emergency. Each detector costs $1,800, and both are owned by the Las Vegas Fire Department.

Representatives from 11 local, state and federal agencies gathered at the Clark County Government Center to take part in the exercise, which included the simulation of a van running into a tractor-trailer truck hauling radioactive debris. The accident happened on a rainy afternoon near the intersection of U.S. 95 and Interstate 15. A school bus was trapped in the resulting traffic jam.

Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams, who asked for the low-level radioactive waste exercise, said Southern Nevada needed more funds, more training for state and local emergency crews and more attention to containing radiation after an accident. "Any accident involving radiation could have devastating and far-reaching consequences for our community," she said.

As chairwoman of the Las Vegas Valley Water District Board, Williams said she will meet with LVVWD General Manager Pat Mulroy to ensure Southern Nevada's drinking water is protected in case of a radioactive spill. The valley sheds runoff into Lake Mead, the major source of drinking water for Las Vegas residents.

UNLV computer experts estimated that under dry conditions with winds of 12 mph radioactive particles could travel three miles from the accident scene.

"Nuclear waste is going to be a growing issue for us," Clark County Emergency Manager Bob Andrews said. "Can I trust the government to tell me about this?"

From Monday through Friday three shipments of low-level radioactive waste from one of 15 federal facilities in neighboring states travel through the heart of Las Vegas.

Since 1993 the Nevada Test Site has received about 700 highway shipments a year. In December four containers were discovered leaking liquid. One truck driver found two quarts of liquid leaking from his truck near Kingman, Ariz. The shipments came from Fernald, Ohio, where uranium was processed for nuclear weapons. The Department of Energy stopped accepting Fernald shipments.

However, the DOE is considering expanding low-level radioactive burial at the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

As many as 11 trucks with radioactive loads a day could begin rolling through Las Vegas and over Hoover Dam as soon as the year 2002, said Dennis Bechtel, director of the county's Nuclear Waste Division.

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