Nuclear waste on the interstate

By DAVID HULSE

BARRYVILLE, NY — What possible concern could the opening of a nuclear waste storage site in Nevada be to residents of the Upper Delaware valley?

The U.S. Energy Department’s Yucca Mountain waste depository is scheduled to be completed some time around 2010. When it’s done, thousands of tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel, which have been sitting in temporary storage at commercial and government reactors, are going to be transported there from all around the country.

The energy department will be using rail shipping and truck shipping on the nation’s interstates.

Interstate-84 or the new I-86, running through some of the lightest populated areas in the region, could be likely trucking routes.

How would a nuclear waste spill impact the tourism and second home industry that fuels the local economy?

Would local emergency response volunteers be put at risk?

According to Congressional testimony gathered by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a Washington D.C. environmental lobbying group, when that shipping begins, neither you, nor your local and county emergency officials or even the governor of your state will have any knowledge of it.

Some 70,000 metric tons of heavy metals will shipped to Yucca Mountain.

If tractor-trailer shipping is used principally, it will generate some 53,000 shipments, about 2,200 per year if Yucca Mountain operates for 24 years. Currently less than 100 such shipments are made annually.

How safe is the shipping?

Proponents say it is very safe, that transport cask containers have been tested against every kind of impact and explosion.

The EWG reports that from 1949 until 1996, there were 72 reported accidents involving radioactive waste shipments. In four cases, there was accidental radioactive material contamination beyond the transport vehicle, in four more there was accidental radioactive material contamination that was confined to the vehicle. There were 13 incidents or traffic accidents that resulted in no release or contamination, and 49 incidents of accidental surface contamination that required clean up.

There were 1,112 fatal tractor-trailer wrecks in Pennsylvania from 1994 through 2000. Some 282 of these fatal wrecks occurred on interstates and 60 involved rollovers.

What are they shipping?

Spent fuel is a misnomer according to the EWG.

Splitting uranium-235 atoms in a nuclear reactor creates intensely radioactive elements known as fission products, such as cesium, strontium, and plutonium. When spent nuclear fuel is removed from the reactor core, it is about a million times more radioactive than when it was loaded. Open exposure to it can produce enough radiation to kill a person three feet away in two minutes, EWG claims.

How are local officials dealing with this?

Most of them don’t know about it or have not considered it.

“We’ve pretty much been entirely concerning ourselves with terrorism issues,” said Sullivan County Emergency Coordinator Richard Martinkovic.

Legislator Chris Cunningham was unaware of the transportation alternatives involved, but said there are things we can do.

“We can make our opinions known. Let them know we’re concerned that this stuff is passing through our community.”

Public Safety Committee Chair Kathy LaBuda said she wanted to check with state officials.

“We need to get ourselves informed and try to get some control of it.”

Shipping on I-84 could mean a big impact for Pike County.

Lackawaxen Supervisors Chair Brian Stuart thought the situation outrageous.

“For years this stuff has been sitting around in holding ponds and no one has ever thought of any other means of disposal.”

However, Pike County Commissioner Harry Forbes had a different read on the situation. Forbes is the chair of the National Association of Counties Sub-committee on Transportation.

“I’ve seen the containers they ship this stuff in. They’re just about indestructible,” he said.

Forbes doesn’t believe an accident is likely and if it were to occur, local services would not be involved.

“They react with their own people.”

Forbes said nuclear waste material is and continues to be shipped regularly on trains and may be shipped in trucks.

“You really can’t expect to stop interstate shipping. That’s not going to happen. We’re just going to have to make sure it’s done responsibly,” he said.

“If I thought there was an issue, a major concern, I’m not shy about speaking out. I have not seen that at this time,” he said.