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David Sneed

The latest plans for transporting highly radioactive waste from Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to a proposed underground disposal site in Nevada allow for the possibility that the waste could be shipped by truck over local roads to San Luis Obispo to be loaded onto trains. However, officials with the federal Department of Energy say the exact method of transport will be made on a case-by-case basis for each nuclear power plant. This leaves open the possibility that Diablo’s waste could be taken by barge from the plant to Port Hueneme, where it could be loaded directly onto trains, thereby bypassing local roads.

“If a utility has the crane capacity and other infrastructure to load a rail cask but does not have access to a railhead, then a barge or heavy-haul truck will be used to move the cask to a railhead,” said Allen Benson, a spokesman for the Yucca Mountain Project. Crane capacity at Diablo Canyon should not be an issue. Plant operators recently used heavy-duty cranes to unload replacement steam generators, each weighing 360 tons, from barges.

Barge and rail options are being considered, Benson said, because some areas of the country like the idea of shipping the waste by barge while other localities oppose it. The agency has promised to work closely with local agencies in preparing detailed transportation plans as the shipment dates get closer.

Moving the waste would take place at least 17 years from now, so many of the details of how the waste would be transported remain unanswered, Benson said.

Federal officials hope to open Yucca Mountain in 2017. It could begin taking spent fuel from Diablo Canyon seven years after it opens. Plants around the country are prioritized for their shipping based on how old they are. Diablo Canyon is among the newer plants.

Waste on local roads?

Charts included in the Yucca Mountain transportation plan state that spent nuclear fuel from Diablo Canyon would be trucked over 14 miles of rural roads, four miles of suburban roads and 1.5 miles of city roads to a rail loading spot in or near San Luis Obispo.

The Diablo Canyon waste would be moved in 41 shipments with a total of 122 casks, according to the Energy Department documents. Armed guards would accompany each shipment, but further security details remain classified.

Once the Department of Energy picks up the waste canisters, they become the agency’s property. Therefore, Diablo Canyon owners Pacific Gas and Electric Co. do not have a position on how the waste should be transported, PG&E spokeswoman Sharon Gavin said.

Details not disclosed

Unanswered questions about truck transport include the exact route the trucks would take, whether the train station in San Luis Obispo would be used for loading and whether area roads and bridges could handle the shipments. A fully loaded cask weighs as much as 180 tons.

Plans call for specially designed, multi-axle heavy haulers to be used that would distribute the loads over a large area, making it possible to meet highway loading limitations, Benson said.

“Roads and bridges will be studied,” he said, “so the exact configuration of the shipping equipment will be matched to their load-carry capacity.”

Mobile cranes and other equipment can be brought in to transfer the casks from the trucks to the railcars if the local rail station lacks the needed equipment.

It is also unclear how long it would take to ship Diablo Canyon’s waste to Yucca Mountain. According to the Department of Energy, it could take up to 50 years to transport all of the nation’s 77,000 metric tons of waste to the underground facility.

Local reaction

County emergency services planners say they are aware that trucking of the waste on local roads is a possibility, but are waiting for more details before they begin planning how to manage it.

“We are keeping an eye on it,” said Ron Alsop, the county’s emergency services manager. “But it’s so far out and it’s changed so often already that, until a deal is inked, we are not going to commit a whole lot of resources to it.”

The Department of Energy would have to get special permits from Caltrans to haul the waste because the shipments would exceed the state’s limit of 80,000 pounds for normal truck traffic, Alsop said. The Energy Department has also promised money for local governments to cover emergency services training and other costs.

David Wiseman, with the San Luis Obispo-based watchdog group Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, said local residents and officials have not had adequate opportunity to comment on the transportation plan.

A series of public meetings about the transportation plan was held in Nevada and Lone Pine, in eastern California, but none locally.

“Local elected officials have not been kept in the loop by Department of Energy officials,” he said.

Yuccas Uncertain Future

While federal energy officials are proceeding with the Yucca Mountain facility, the fate of the underground repository is still uncertain. Nevada elected officials, including U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, remain adamantly opposed to it.

All of the leading Democratic presidential candidates say they will scrap Yucca Mountain if elected. Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, is also opposed.

“Congresswoman Capps remains opposed to the Yucca Mountain proposal at this time, largely due to concerns about the safety risks posed by transporting the nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, whether by barge or by ground transportation,” said Emily Kryder, Capps’ press secretary.

Federal officials say the large nuclear waste canisters are robust and can be transported safely by both truck and rail.

Over the past 40 years, 3,000 loads of highly radioactive waste have been safely shipped around the country.

Reach David Sneed at 781-7930