DOE says dedicated trains to be used for nuclear waste shipments

By: ERICA WERNER - Associated Press Writer | Monday, July 18, 2005 7:33 PM PDT ∞

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nuclear waste will be shipped to a national repository in the Nevada desert on dedicated railroad cars, rather than sharing trains with other cargo, the Energy Department announced Monday.

Although general freight trains will be an option, DOE's policy will be to use dedicated trains for the estimated 3,500 shipments of spent nuclear fuel and high-level defense waste bound for the Yucca Mountain repository, the department said.

The trains will carry waste from sites in some three dozen states to the repository planned 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. In addition to the train shipments, some 1,100 truck shipments will be needed, though they won't be affected by the transportation policy, officials said.

Using dedicated trains will be cheaper and more secure than regular freight trains, department officials said.

"The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management is adopting a policy to use dedicated trains for its usual shipments of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to the Yucca Mountain repository site in Nevada, when the repository is operational," Paul M. Golan, the agency's principal deputy director, wrote in a letter released to those involved with the project.

Yucca Mountain is planned as a national repository for 77,000 tons of nuclear waste to be buried for 10,000 years and beyond.

Funding shortages and other problems -- including a recent controversy over possible paperwork fraud on the project -- have delayed the opening date, now estimated for 2012 or later.

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