Article: "Fatal crash on likely nuclear waste route"

["Jim Hardeman" <Jim_Hardeman@MAIL.DNR.STATE.GA.US>]

Colleagues —



When I first saw the headline for the article below, which appeared in the Reno Gazette-Journal on 4/19, I thought it was referring to the Amtrak derailment in Florida last week. Then I realized it was referring to a truck crash on US 95 in Nevada. 



Do you think we're going to see this sort of reporting each time there's a traffic accident on any potential spent fuel transportation route? (i.e., any interstate or mainline rail line)



URL = http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2002/04/18/12431.php 



Jim Hardeman

jim_hardeman@mail.dnr.state.ga.us 



=====================================



Fatal crash on likely nuclear waste route



Elaine Goodman 

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

4/18/2002 09:11 pm 



A fatal traffic collision involving a shipment of flammable material on U.S. 95 near McDermitt renewed concerns Thursday about the possible transport of nuclear waste along the same route.



James Pike, 62, of Kooskia, Idaho, was killed after he was ejected from the passenger seat of a Cadillac that hit a tractor-trailer truck about 3 p.m. Wednesday near the Oregon border, authorities said.



The truck overturned during the collision, spilling flammable material on the road. Officials could not immediately identify the material.



Nevada officials said the crash is exactly what worries them most about shipping nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain if the dump there is approved.



Fire during a high-impact accident involving a nuclear waste spill could turn the radioactive material into an aerosol, spreading it over a large area and into ground water and the food chain, said Joe Strolin, planning division administrator for the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. The agency, part of the governor's office, opposes the Yucca Mountain proposal.



"That would be a truly nasty scenario," Strolin said.



Strolin and officials including U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., are concerned that the nuclear power industry relies primarily on computer simulations to determine how nuclear waste transportation casks resist fire rather than testing casks in real fires.



But former Nevada Gov. Bob List, a consultant with the Nuclear Energy Institute, said the waste casks have never leaked during shipment over more than 3 million miles in the United States.



"This material is transported very safely on a regular basis," List said. "The spill would be from the chemicals, not from the nuclear."



Strolin said U.S. 95 is a possible shipping route to Yucca Mountain from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratories outside of Idaho Falls. Nuclear waste usually is transported on interstates, which are considered safer than other highways, Strolin said.



But Strolin said other highways, such as U.S. 95, might be approved for nuclear waste if they're quicker than interstate routes.



The southbound Cadillac lost control on the icy road and veered into the oncoming truck, deputies said.



Car driver, James A. Pike, 41, was flown by Care Flight helicopter to Washoe Medical Center. The driver is the passenger's son.



It was not immediately clear whether the driver of the truck, 35-year-old Steven P. Shear of Meridian, Idaho, was injured.







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