Ken Ritter AP
Radioactive Shipments Begin
Wed Jan 7 22:45:58 2004
65.146.120.6

Posted on Wed, Jan. 07, 2004

Radioactive shipments begin
Compromise reached in disputed route
By KEN RITTER
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS - Shipments of medium-level radioactive waste were to begin today on a previously disputed route from the Nevada Test Site through California and Arizona to New Mexico, officials said.

''The schedule is tomorrow,'' Ralph Smith, spokesman for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., said Tuesday. ''We have seven shipments planned this month.''

California balked at allowing the shipments in July, but the federal Energy Department and the four states' governors agreed Oct. 9 to allow 40 to 60 shipments this year on the 1,130-mile route, Smith said.

''A fair solution has been worked out,'' Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., said Tuesday through a spokesman. Feinstein had led the opposition to the shipments, arguing that the California desert route included an old highway with poorly maintained stretches unsuited for heavy trucks.

A spokeswoman for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger referred questions to the governor's office of emergency services, which did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

Bob Loux, Nevada Nuclear Projects Office chief, said the agreement allowed for half the original number of shipments along the California desert route, as long as the other half goes another route.

Smith said no decision had been made on a second route. The Energy Department did not consider as viable an alternate route across 1,800 miles of Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, passing through Salt Lake City and Denver, he said.

Loux and an official with the National Nuclear Security Administration office in North Las Vegas said about 1,650 drums of ''transuranic'' waste have been stored for decades north of Las Vegas at the Nevada Test Site, awaiting transport to the plant in New Mexico.

The waste -- much of it from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California -- includes items such as plutonium-contaminated protective gear, tools and equipment that can take thousands of years or more to decay to safe levels.

Smith said barrels of waste will be carried on specially modified flatbed trucks owned by a contractor, Tri-State Motor Transport of Joplin, Mo.

The shipments will go from a test site gate south along state highways to Baker; southwest on Interstate 15 to Barstow; and east on Interstate 40 through Flagstaff, Ariz., and Albuquerque, N.M., before heading south on U.S. 285 to Carlsbad.