Posted on 06/16/2004 10:42:32 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
By Suzanne Struglinski WASHINGTON -- Nuclear waste destined for Yucca Mountain will still move through the Las Vegas Valley, as an Energy Department plan to use a rail route through Caliente won't prevent its shipment through the state's most populous region, state officials claimed. The Energy Department plans to ship most of the waste to the proposed nuclear waste storage site at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas via train, including a new rail line to be built in Lincoln County. In a 120-page document sent to the Energy Department May 25, the state attempted to make clear that choosing the Caliente corridor option doesn't mean that no waste would come to Clark County. The state sent comments to the department for the department's draft environmental report on the rail line. "Any waste coming to Yucca Mountain from Southern California and Arizona would have to go through Las Vegas, and in winter months, rail shipments coming from Texas through New Mexico and Arizona and into California would pass through Barstow, (Calif.), and the only route it would have to Yucca Mountain from there would be through Las Vegas," wrote Bob Loux, executive director of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects. In the April announcement designating the Caliente route, the department said the private carriers would pick the routes, which could include the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe or Union Pacific lines. The Union Pacific Line runs along Interstate 15, and connects Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., with Salt Lake City and the eastern United States. Most of the waste is stored in East Coast states. "The Caliente route, therefore, does not do as it is advertised," Loux said. The state said that "even if DOE (the Energy Department) shipped an average of three casks per train, there could be 2,854 shipments over 24 years, or an average of two train shipments per week, through Las Vegas." The state has been saying that a rail route wouldn't keep the waste out of Las Vegas,even before the department finalized the Caliente selection in April. Bob Halstead, the state's transportation consultant, said at a nuclear waste conference in March that all rail shipments to Yucca Mountain, except those from the Pacific Northwest and Idaho, could travel to Caliente through downtown Las Vegas under credible alternative routing scenarios. "In addition to the potential impacts on residents, the proximity of the Union Pacific mainline to the world-famous Las Vegas Strip and to other major commercial properties creates truly unique local impact conditions," Halstead wrote in a paper prepared for the conference. The Energy Department did not return calls seeking comment.
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
Oh boy.
Another reason for LV to glow in the night if one of those shipments ever went awry.. (not that that's very likely with the security precautions that would be implemented)
Short of boring railway tunnels through miles of rock under the numerous mountain ranges in souther Nevada, the rail route almost HAS to pass near Las Vegas coming down from the Great Basin and points west of Salt Lake City. Bemoaning the fact that the rail transport will pass somewhere near the populated area is just pandering to emotions. If superstitous fear of radioactivity frightens you that badly, then plan your routes carefully, and select your permanent residence in regions far from populous centers in this country. When the Islamofascists get through setting off all their "dirty" thermonuclear devices, the cities will be uninhabitable.
That radioactivity will get you, man.
Do these people really think it is beyond design and manufacture capability to build a storage cask and transportation system that is safe? We have nuclear waste from the Savannah River facility which will most likely transit through Atlanta. I'll be perfectly happy to see that happen as a long term storage solution is implemented. These nitpickers are arguing that the storage facility at Yucca Mtn. should not be implemented because of the marginal risks of things like transporting the waste to the facility, completely ignoring the far more substantial risks of leaving the waste in place or letting it accumulate in temporary storage pools. This kind of NIMBY shit may be cute when it is being expressed over locating a Wal Mart - but this is serious business.
They can park it right on Las Vegas BLVD for all I care. That city is a sewer.
Right.
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