(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Erica Werner on October 19.)
WASHINGTON — An attorney for Nevada told a federal appeals court on Tuesday that the Energy Department should be forced to redo its plan for shipping nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, contending the agency overstepped its authority and violated environmental rules.
Among other problems, attorney Joe Egan said the Energy Department neglected to consult with the federal Surface Transportation Board before settling on its plan to use trains to move nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
“This is like someone trying to site an airport without involving the FAA,” Egan told a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
A government attorney disagreed.
“This is an objection that was not made by Nevada or anybody else during the administrative process,” Justice Department attorney John Bryson told the judges during oral arguments. “The DOE’s determination that it would be the lead agency is undoubtedly correct.”
At least one judge appeared sympathetic to Nevada’s arguments.
The Surface Transportation Board, tasked by Congress with jurisdiction over railroad issues, “would certainly have special expertise,” Judge Harry Edwards told Bryson.
At issue in the litigation – one of several challenges Nevada is pursuing against the waste dump project – is the Energy Department’s plan to rely mostly on rail to transport 77,000 tons of commercial spent fuel and high-level defense waste to Yucca Mountain. The waste would travel by train to Caliente in southeastern Nevada and then to Yucca Mountain over a proposed 318-mile rail line.
About 3,500 rail shipments would be required, as well as 1,100 truck shipments from sites that don’t have capacity to handle the larger and heavier rail casks.
DOE estimates shipping waste by rail for 24 years and says that could include a six-year interim plan while the rail line is completed. The interim plan would entail shipping waste to Nevada by rail, then loading it on trucks for the rest of the trip to Yucca Mountain.
Egan argued Tuesday that the government proposed the interim plan without the necessary environmental analysis. But the government said the interim plan doesn’t constitute a substantial enough change to need a supplemental environmental report.
The government also contended that the Surface Transportation Board would need to be involved only if the Energy Department decides to operate the new rail line as a “common carrier” open to non-nuclear shipments, as opposed to a private, dedicated railway.