WASHINGTON — Two deadly rail accidents in the past week and last year’s devastating train tunnel fire in Baltimore fueled opposition on Thursday to Bush administration plans to transport the nation’s nuclear waste to a permanent storage facility planned for the Nevada desert, reports a wire service.
“This ill-conceived project will expose tens of millions of Americans to unnecessary nuclear transport risks,” Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn told two House transportation subcommittees at a hearing on plans for the $58 billion Yucca Mountain site.
As Guinn appealed to lawmakers, the House Energy Committee overwhelmingly approved a resolution to override the governor’s veto of the project. The full House is expected to follow suit next month, but Guinn hopes the project will die in the Democratic-led Senate.
“According to the Department of Energy’s own analysis, a single accident scenario could produce thousands of latent cancer fatalities and lead to many billions of dollars in cleanup costs,” Guinn said.
Under 1982 federal law on nuclear waste disposal, a governor may veto a president’s plans to put a depository in his or her state. But the veto can be overridden if both the House and Senate agree to do so on majority votes.
But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent government agency that will have to approve the license to operate Yucca Mountain, assured lawmakers that nuclear waste from commercial power plants could be safely transported by freight rail.
“Spent fuel has been safely and securely shipped within the U.S. and around the world for more than 25 years,” Carl Paperiello, deputy director of NRC operations, said in a statement.
Rep. Vernon Ehelers, a Michigan Republican and physicist, expressed similar confidence, saying the government also ships nuclear weapons without incident.
“I think the dangers are overstated,” he said.
ADMINISTRATION FAVORS FREIGHT RAIL
While no final transportation plan has emerged, the Bush administration favors freight rail to haul 3,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel annually to Yucca Mountain from 131 reactor sites in 39 states. It will take roughly 25 years to fill the underground site, according to Energy Department estimates.
Because train tracks do not reach all of the nation’s nuclear waste storage sites, trucks, barges or both could be used to ship some of the material to rail depots. The nearest set of tracks to Yucca Mountain are 100 miles away.
If approved, it will be eight years at least before the first shipments occur, but opposition to the plan is fierce and a large part of it has coalesced around rail safety and, to another degree, potential threats from terrorists seeking to seize radioactive material or detonate it to kill Americans.
Several lawmakers pointed to last week’s Amtrak derailment in Florida that killed four people and this week’s collision between a freight train and a commuter train in Los Angeles that killed two others as proof the U.S. rail system — where freight and passenger trains share thousands of miles of track — is not suited to nuclear waste transport on a large scale.
Many of the nation’s nuclear power plants are in the East, and waste from them would have to be shipped across the country on lines that pass through populated cities and towns.
“This never-before-attempted radioactive materials transportation effort would bring with it a constellation of hazards and risks, including potentially serious economic damage and property value losses in cities and communities along shipping routes,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat and former Cleveland mayor.
WAKE-UP CALL
Other opponents, like Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, also said last July’s train tunnel fire in Baltimore was a “real wake-up” call to the potential dangers of transporting hazardous waste of any kind by rail.
That fire, caused by a freight train derailment, burned for three days and shut down downtown Baltimore for three days. Heat from the fire reached as high as 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Experts for the state of Nevada said containers holding nuclear waste could be damaged at that temperature.
Federal Railroad Administration chief Allan Rutter told the committee that the nation’s freight rail system was ideally suited and safe for transporting radioactive waste, which he said would increase sharply in coming years even without Yucca Mountain.
But Rutter said the post-Sept. 11 threat from terrorists prompted new security challenges.
“Ultimately, the safe movement of (these materials) depends on the application of sound safety regulations, policies and procedures. This requires extensive planning and coordination among federal agencies, state and local governments and commercial transportation companies,” he said.