DOE seeks approval for nuclear-waste railway

Railway Age, May, 2008

The U.S. Department of Energy, has filed for approval to build a 300-mile railway to haul nuclear waste to a proposed geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The new railway is to be known as the Caliente Line and will extend an existing Union Pacific line near Caliente, Nev., to Yucca Mountain. The Surface Transportation Board said the line will provide common carrier rail services to on-line communities as well as allow DOE to transport spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.

Long under study, the proposal is so controversial that STB has adopted an extended timetable to consider what it expects to be a vast volume of public comment. The State of Nevada has asked the STB to reject the DOE's application or, alternatively, "to make replies to the application due after applicant has supplemented the record."

Noting that "the environmental review ... began in 2004 and is well under way," STB went on to clarify its role in the proceeding: "The Board's Section of Environmental analysis and the other cooperating agencies on the Nevada rail corridor and rail alignment EIS (the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Air Force) have participated in every step of the EIS process." DOE expects to issue the final EIS in June. STB said it is not participating in the ongoing EIS process for the proposed nuclear waste site but will "take into consideration both the transportation merits and the environmental impacts of constructing and operating the proposed line when ruling on DOE's application."