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Estimated cost of Yucca Mountain railroad raised to $2 billion
The Energy Department now says it could cost two (B) Billion dollars to build a railroad line to ship radioactive waste across Nevada to the proposed national nuclear waste dump.
LAS VEGAS The Energy Department now says it could cost two (B) Billion dollars to build a railroad line to ship radioactive waste across Nevada to the proposed national nuclear waste dump.
No railroad currently runs to Yucca Mountain.
A D-O-E official says factoring in rail yards, maintenance and support facilities raises the cost beyond the original 880 (M) Million dollar estimate from 2002.
Critics of the repository had derided the original estimate as far too low for a new 319-mile rail line from a rail head near Caliente to the repository - 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
They now say the entire Yucca plan is getting too expensive.
The D-O-E says a total project estimate is still being calculated.
In 2001, it projected the cost of building and operating the national nuclear repository at about 58 (B) Billion dollars.
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