Public Hearing to Consider Nuclear Waste Shipment Through Cleveland, Ohio and the Midwest

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Thursday January 27, 12:22 pm Eastern Time

Company Press Release

Public Hearing to Consider Nuclear Waste Shipment Through Cleveland, 
Ohio and the Midwest  

CARSON CITY, Nev.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 2000--On Friday, January 
28, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will hold a public hearing 
regarding the transportation of thousands of tons of deadly 
radioactive wastes through Cleveland, the State of Ohio, and other 
states, over a period of three decades.  

``Because DOE has not publicized the true intent of the hearing, 
affected communities and individuals may not be aware of it, or of 
the federal program behind it,'' said Bob Loux of the Nevada 
Governor's Office.  

At the January 28 hearing, to be held at the Holiday Inn, Lakeside 
City Center, 1111 Lakeside Avenue, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and in the 
evening from 6 p.m. through 9 p.m., DOE will accept public comments 
on the proposal to construct and operate a repository for spent 
nuclear reactor fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Nevada's 
Yucca Mountain. Because of the locations of nuclear power plants and 
defense nuclear facilities that would ship spent fuel and highly 
radioactive wastes to a Nevada facility, the Cleveland area would be 
heavily impacted by Yucca Mountain-related transportation. In a 
preliminary review of DOE's draft Environmental Impact Statement for 
the Yucca Mountain project, the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects 
found that:  

--   Under the least impacting scenario, between 2,700 and 4,200 rail 
shipments of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste 
would pass through Ohio. There would be an average of 2 rail 
shipments per week every week for at least 25 years. The majority of 
the rail shipments would travel through Cleveland.   

--   In addition to the rail shipments, between 1,600 and 2,300 truck 
shipments from New England and New York nuclear reactors would also 
travel through the Cleveland and Toledo metropolitan areas on I-80 
and I-90.  

--   Under a shipping scenario where most of the spent fuel and high-
level waste is shipped by truck, between 11,200 and 18,900 shipments 
would impact the Cleveland and Toledo metropolitan areas on I-90 and 
I-80, an average of 1.3 truckloads per day every day for 24 to 39 
years. Maps showing nuclear waste shipping routes are attached as 
files and can also be found on the web at 
http:www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/trans/images/16-1.gif and 
http:www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/trans/images/18-1b.gif.  

--   Under either scenario, the number of shipments through Cleveland 
will substantially exceed the total number of such shipments 
nationally during the entire history of the U.S. Nuclear power 
industry.  

--   Studies by the State of Nevada indicate that these shipments are 
vulnerable to severe accidents and could become attractive targets 
for sabotage and terrorism.  

Nuclear waste transportation expert Robert J. Halstead will be 
available for media interviews before, during, and after the hearing. 
Halstead can be reached at 608/742-3973 or through the Nevada Agency 
for Nuclear Projects at 775/687-3744.  

Statement of Robert J. Halstead on Behalf of the State of Nevada 
Agency for Nuclear Projects Regarding U.S. Department of Energy Draft 
Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the 
Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at 
Yucca Mountain, Nevada  

Presented at the Public Hearing in Cleveland, Ohio January 28, 2000  

The manner in which the comment period and public hearings for the 
draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the proposed Yucca 
Mountain High-Level Radioactive Waste Repository have been noticed by 
DOE is misleading and intended to suppress public participation and 
public comments. Notices make no reference to the specific 
transportation routes, the types and volumes of shipments along each 
route, and the impacts to specific communities along identified 
routes; nor is such information to be found in the draft EIS 
document.  

The State of Nevada has attempted to address these issues in comments 
delivered at various public hearings around the country. The State's 
preliminary transportation comments have addressed specific 
deficiencies in DOE's DEIS regarding the radiological hazards of the 
SNF and HLW that DOE proposes to ship to Yucca Mountain, the shipment 
modes and routes, the risks associated with legal weight truck (LWT) 
transport, the vulnerability of shipments to human initiated events 
including terrorism and sabotage, DOE's failure to identify a 
preferred rail access corridor to Yucca Mountain, and DOE's failure 
to demonstrate the feasibility of heavy haul truck (HHT) 
transportation from an intermodal transfer station to the proposed 
repository, impacts of rail construction and operation, impacts on 
Native American lands and cultural resources, and social and economic 
impacts of public perception of transportation risks. These 
statements are available on the web at www.state.nv.us/nucwaste.  

The draft EIS fails to identify the specific transportation routes 
for spent fuel and HLW shipments from specific reactor and generator 
locations to Yucca Mountain despite the fact that these routes were 
identified as part of the analyses contained in the transportation 
appendix and references. DOE, in effect, has chosen to hide these 
routes and simply report the analyses in a generic fashion. The State 
of Nevada has been able, after considerable effort, to ``back out'' 
those specific routes from modeling data contained in DEIS 
references. Those routes make Ohio the gateway to Yucca Mountain for 
all of the commercial nuclear power reactors in the Northeastern and 
Middle Atlantic states, but the DEIS makes no specific reference to 
transportation impacts in Ohio.  

Under the DEIS mostly truck scenario, DOE's preferred Nevada route to 
Yucca Mountain is I-15, the Las Vegas Beltway (I-215), and US 95. 
Using the HIGHWAY model, DOE contractors generated national routes 
from the 77 shipping sites to connect with the Las Vegas Beltway. 
These national routes are not revealed in the DEIS, but they are 
disclosed in the DEIS references, which can be accessed on the 
worldwide web at www.ymp.gov/timeline/eis/trw1999udata.  

The routes used for the mostly truck impact analysis in the DEIS 
correspond to actual cross-country routes to I-15 and the Las Vegas 
Beltway. These routes generally are I-80 for shipments from the 
Northeastern and North Central states, I-70 for shipments from 
Southeastern and Midwestern states, and I-10 and I-40 for shipments 
from South Central and Southwestern states. Shipments from the 
Pacific Northwest and Idaho use I-84 and I-15. Shipments from Arizona 
and California use I-5, I-10, and I-15. (See DEIS reference TRW 
1999udata, Chapter 4, file bt_map.prn. The origin-destination 
distances generated in miles in this file correspond to the origin-
destination distances given in kilometers in DEIS Table J-11.) The 
DEIS compares the transportation impacts calculated for the preferred 
route with impacts for six potential alternative routes identified by 
the State of Nevada to minimize shipments through the Las Vegas 
Valley. (See Table J-48.)  

The highway routes used in the DEIS make Ohio a major corridor state 
for truck shipments to Yucca Mountain. Three of the principal truck 
routes from Eastern reactors enter Ohio from Pennsylvania on I-90, I-
80, and I-76; converge on the Ohio Turnpike (I-80/I-90) at Elyria; 
and then continue west through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa on I-80. 
These routes traverse the Cleveland and Toledo metropolitan areas, 
and more than 300 miles on rural Ohio interstate highways. Truck 
shipments through Ohio are presented in Table 1. Under the mostly 
truck scenario, proposed action, about 11,2000 truck shipments of SNF 
and HLW (about 22% of the total) traverse Ohio over 24 years. Under 
the mostly truck scenario, modules 1 & 2, about 18,900 truckloads of 
SNF and HLW (about 20% of the total) traverse Ohio over 39 years. 
Under either scenario, an average of 1.3 trucks per day would travel 
through Ohio every day for decades. Additionally, Ohio would be 
traversed by 100 to 200 truckloads of greater-than-Class-C low level 
radioactive wastes from commercial reactors to Yucca Mountain during 
the same time period.  

Rail shipments to Yucca Mountain would also heavily impact Ohio. The 
DEIS evaluated four rail routing scenarios using the INTERLINE model. 
Under the DEIS routing scenarios, two major streams of rail shipments 
to Yucca Mountain converge in Cleveland, at the interchange of 
Conrail mainlines from Buffalo and Harrisburg. A smaller number of 
shipments travel the Norfolk Southern from Cleveland to Chicago, the 
Norfolk Southern from West Virginia to Kansas City via Portsmouth, 
and the CSXT from Pennsylvania to Chicago via Youngstown and Akron. 
Rail shipments along these routes, which total almost 1,000 route 
miles in Ohio, are presented in Table 2. Under the mostly rail 
scenario, proposed action, about 2,700 rail shipments (about 25% of 
the total) traverse Ohio over 24 years. Under the mostly rail 
scenario, modules 1 & 2, about 4,200 rail shipments (about 21% of the 
total) traverse Ohio over 39 years. Additionally, I-76, I-80, and I-
90 through Ohio would be traversed by between 1,600 to 2,300 truck 
shipments of SNF from reactors in New England and New York which 
cannot economically ship by rail. Under either scenario, an average 
of 1 shipment every two days would travel through Ohio for three or 
four decades.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Biomedicals, Inc.				E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          
Costa Mesa, CA 92626                                      

Personal Website:  http://www.geocities.com/scperle
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html