Another biased news article

[steve.rima@DOEGJPO.COM (Steven Rima)]

     Although the article is pretty biased, we continue to be our own worst 
     enemy. I especially like the part where the DOE's "Transportation 
     Analyst" essentially says "sue us, we'll win." Great PR.
     
     Steven D. Rima, CHP, CSP
     Manager, Health Physics and Industrial Hygiene
     MACTEC-ERS, LLC
     steven.rima@doegjpo.com
     
     **********************************************************************
     
     Officials upset at plan to ship 70,000 tons of waste via I-70
     
                           By CHRISTOPHER BARGE
     
     Local officials say a federal plan to ship thousands of truckloads of 
     highly radioactive waste through the Grand Valley on Interstate 70 is 
     a "bad idea." 
     
     Officials also complained they have not heard anything about the U.S.  
     Energy Department's plans to use I-70 to send waste from nuclear       
     reactors nationwide to a burial site in Nevada. 
     
     "That thing has to be nipped in the bud," said Mesa County Commission
     Chairwoman Kathy Hall. "I never go over that mountain that I don't see 
     a truck wreck." 
     
     "Steep grades, tight curves and I-70's proximity to the Colorado River
     throughout the Western Slope would make that a bad idea," said Drew
     Reekie, director of hazardous materials for the Grand Junction Fire
     Department. 
     
     "I'm intrigued by the lack of communication on the Energy Department's
     part to even provide comments on this to local governments," said Guy
     Meyer, public safety coordinator for Garfield County. "There's a 
     number of vulnerabilities that exist on this corridor." 
     
     The Energy Department held a hearing in Denver Tuesday on an
     environmental impact statement drafted for the burial plan. 
     
     An estimated 70,000 tons of highly radioactive heavy metal would be 
     sent to a burial site at Yucca Mountain, near the California border, 
     beginning in 2010. 
     
     About 33,350 shipments of spent nuclear rods and other high-level
     radioactive waste would pass through Grand Junction along Interstate 
     70. 
     
     "If there was an accident with one of those trucks in Mesa County," 
     said Mesa County Sheriff Riecke Claussen, "it would be an accident 
     that at least the sheriff's office would find it very difficult to 
     deal with." 
     
     Claussen added that he, like every local official contacted last week 
     by The Daily Sentinel, had no previous knowledge of the plan. 
     
     "I would hope that prior to any of the shipments coming through that 
     any local officials, including the designated emergency response 
     authority, the emergency management office, public officials, other 
     fire departments and the entire emergency response community would be 
     consulted on this issue," said Kimberly Parker, emergency management 
     director for Mesa County. 
     
     "We're pretty adamant in saying that's not a suitable route for this 
     kind of material," said Colorado State Patrol Capt. Allan Turner, 
     director of the patrol's hazardous material unit. 
     
     Since the 1980s Turner said Colorado has banned nuclear waste
     shipments on Interstate 70 because of steep grades and tight curves. 
     
     Steve Maheras, transportation analyst for the Energy Department, said
     nuclear transportation policy dictates that trucks use interstates and 
     the shortest routes whenever possible. 
     
     "Colorado law says we cannot use that route, but the (U.S.) Department
     of Transportation says we must," Maheras said. "We chose to go with 
     the Department of Transportation." 
     
     A final environmental impact statement should be finished by November
     2000, and a final decision on the transportation route will come in 
     2006. 
     
     Maheras said if the Energy Department chooses the Interstate 70 route
     and it is challenged, the federal government will win in court. 
     
     "That (an alternate route) would force all shipments to I-80. Did they
     consult with Wyoming? You are not allowed, according to Department of
     Transportation rules, to export your problems to someone else," 
     Maheras said. 
     
     "I-80 is certainly a lot less dramatic as far as topography goes," 
     said Reekie. "It is a more desirable and less environmentally 
     sensitive topography." 
     
     Turner said he wants to work with Wyoming, New Mexico and Arizona to
     develop an alternative to the Interstate 70 route. 
     
     Ginger Swartz of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects criticized the
     Energy Department for its job of explaining to the public how the 
     preferred plan would affect them. 
     
     "The notices for this public hearing, for example, refer only to a 
     draft environmental impact study for a radioactive waste repository at 
     Yucca Mountain, Nevada," she said. "They do not indicate that people 
     in Colorado, Wyoming and other Western states stand to be 
     significantly impacted by thousands of radioactive-materials shipments 
     as a direct result of the Yucca Mountain program." 
     
     The uncertainty makes it difficult for states to assess risks and 
     plan, Turner said. 
     
     Backers of the plan said concerns are exaggerated. "This is a very 
     safe operation," said Robert Jefferson, a New Mexico consultant to the 
     Nuclear Energy Institute. 
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html