KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasNew Concerns Over Nukes Transport Routes

New Concerns Over Nukes Transport Routes

(Jul. 1) -- There's new information on the project to put nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Thursday morning the State Commission on Nuclear Projects got an update on the dump site. Commissioners focused a large part of their time on transportation. Eyewitness News was the only station there.

The meeting lasted a little more than an hour. Most of it attacked the Department of Energy for misleading southern Nevada residents and not following through on promises to the state. One important issue is transportation.

Joe Strolin is the State Administrator of Planning for the agency of nuclear projects. He told the panel that nuclear waste would come through Las Vegas. The Department of Energy in public meetings has said building a rail line through Caliente would avoid waste traveling through this populated valley.

Strolin stated, "The problem with that is that selecting the Caliente rail route does not preclude shipments through Las Vegas." Strolin says the railroads would determine the waste delivery route -- not the DOE.

After examining state funded studies, Strolin concluded, because of weather and mid-western high traffic areas, the railroads prefer to use a southern rail line that travels through Las Vegas. "That would mean that almost 100-percent of the shipments would go through the Las Vegas Valley even with the Caliente railroad.

Eyewitness News asked Department of Energy spokesman Allen Benson if any of the nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain would travel through this area.

Benson, with the DOE, stated, "Can't say and I don't want to speculate. We have made no decision with respect to transportation."

That frustrates skeptical state nuclear commissioners. "It's the uncertainty. A lot of people keep hearing different stories. It's been the DOE's trademark that a story today changes next week or a year from today," said Larry Brown, state nuclear commissioner.

Joe Strolin added, "I think that makes us nervous as a state. It's very difficult to plan when these uncertainties are so great. That has been a major problem for us all the way along."

With that, there are no answers.

Earlier this year the state argued in front of a federal three-judge panel that nuclear waste should not be brought to Yucca Mountain. That lawsuit is still pending. The commission hoped to have a verdict by now. It could come any day.