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

     News Editors/Government, Transportation &Environment Writers
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    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.
    &uot;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,&uot; 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:
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--   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.
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    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.
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   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
*T
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    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 &uot;back
out&uot; 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.

     --30--gdr/sf*

     CONTACT: Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects
              Robert J. Halstead, 608/742-3973 or 775/687-3744

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