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Reid, Ensign say nuclear waste rail plan unsafe – San Jose Mercury News

Reid, Ensign say nuclear waste rail plan unsafeBy MercuryNews,com ERICA WERNER Associated Press 24 Sept 08 “………..

Testifying at a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee, Reid, D-Nev., called the Energy Department’s plans for shipping spent nuclear fuel to Yucca Mountain “grossly incomplete.”

“Their draft transportation plan is barely a crude sketch of the comprehensive planning that should actually be done for a massive nuclear waste shipping campaign,” Reid said.

Ensign said: “I have bad news for those of you with working nuclear reactors in your states who think that the opening of Yucca will rid your state of nuclear waste—you’re wrong.”

Instead the result would be dangerously transporting waste through states around the country to Nevada, said Ensign, R-Nev………………

The period for shipping waste to the repository could span up to 50 years, with 190 to 317 rail casks shipped each year on trains carrying three to five casks, according to the Energy Department Web site.

Commercial power reactors have about 64,000 tons of used reactor fuel at power plants in 33 states awaiting shipment to Yucca Mountain, with the amount growing at the rate of 2,000 tons a year, according to the industry.

Reid, Ensign say nuclear waste rail plan unsafe – San Jose Mercury News

Tags: Nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

September 25, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | wastes