U.P., Other Railroads to Haul 200 Tons of Nuclear Waste
OMAHA, Neb. -- A one-time rail shipment of 200 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste from New York will cross southern Nebraska as early as the end of this monththe Omaha World Herald reports.
West Valley Nuclear Services, a U.S. Department of Energy contractor, is shipping the waste in two specially designed containers that are supposed to prevent the release of radiation or spillage in an accident. The waste from Western New York Nuclear Services Center in West Valley, N.Y., is headed for the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory near Scoville, where it will be stored.
"The rail cars are ready to go," said John Chamberlain, communications technical adviser for West Valley Nuclear Services. "We're shooting for a shipment this summer."
West Valley estimates shipping the waste will take four days. Chamberlain said the shipment dates wouldn't be disclosed because of safety concerns.
After the waste is removed from the New York site, the Energy Department can proceed with decontaminating the nation's first commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. The center, which operated from 1966 to 1972, recycled uranium from reactors for reuse.
The shipment of nuclear waste will be handled by three railroads - the Buffalo & Pittsburgh, Norfolk Southern and CSX - before being handed off to the Union Pacific Railroad Co. at Kansas City, Mo. Union Pacific, based in Omaha, will take the waste through Nebraska and on to Idaho.
The U.P. route runs through northeastern Kansas, including Topeka and Marysville, and enters Nebraska at Fairbury. The train will travel 369 miles in Nebraska, passing through Hastings, Gibbon, Kearney, North Platte, Ogallala and Sidney before leaving the state at Bushnell, near Interstate 80 in the southwest corner of the Panhandle.
U.P. spokesman John Bromley in Omaha said federal "common carrier" regulations prohibit railroads from rejecting a shipment.
"We didn't have a choice in the matter," he said.
Although U.P.'s fee for shipping the nuclear waste wasn't disclosed, Bromley said traditional shipping fees won't apply. The railroad and West Valley will operate under a contract that bases charges on the special services required.
West Valley's Chamberlain said the unique conditions required for the shipment - a special route and a dedicated train that won't carry other freight - means that railroad companies would "undoubtedly get paid more than for regular shipments."
"The rail contracts are being worked on right now," he said.
Bromley said shipping nuclear waste for commercial and U.S. Department of Defense projects dates to the 1950s. Destinations for the waste have included the storage facility in Scoville and a nuclear power plant in Hanford, Wash.
"It's not uncommon," he said, declining to elaborate on how often nuclear waste is shipped.
Low-level nuclear waste from a defunct uranium processing facility outside Cincinnati has regularly been shipped on U.P. rail along the same southern Nebraska route since April 1999. That facility, the Fernald Environmental Management Project, is being closed and is undergoing environmental cleanup. By the time the project ends in 2005, a total of 626,000 tons of waste will have been hauled through Nebraska to a disposal facility in Clive, Utah.
For this summer's shipment, Buffalo & Pittsburgh will be handling its first load of nuclear waste. Aside from its two-man crew, the company is considering adding a safety director, said David Collins, president of the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad.
Chamberlain, of West Valley, said the four railroads were picked because they offered the shortest and least populated route from New York to Idaho.
Chamberlain said the seven-car train will contain the two cars designed to haul the containers of nuclear waste. They will be supplemented by three cars filled with ballast for weight stability. A locomotive will lead the train, and a passenger car will be at the end.
West Valley officials say they have met with the railroad representatives, state officials and American Indian tribes along the route. For additional safety, railroad crews have been briefed about the cargo, and three contract workers with the Department of Energy will ride in the passenger car. The shipment also will be tracked by satellite.
Gov. Mike Johanns' spokesman, Chris Peterson, said he and representatives of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency and Health and Human Services were informed in December of the West Valley shipment.
He said hazardous waste shipments often cross Nebraska because it is in the middle of the country.
"Many of those shipments are low-level (radiation) shipments whereby state or local authorities are notified of the shipments," he said. "For the West Valley shipment, the state will be notified of the approximate time frame when the train will hit the state's border and when the train leaves the state."
Peterson said the state is making no special provisions to directly monitor the shipment while it's in Nebraska.
Jon Schwarz, radiological programs manager for the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, said the West Valley shipment is unique because it's a one-time shipment that state officials have known about for a long time.
Shipping Details