A federal proposal to ship up to 4,500 casks of nuclear waste by train through Reno and Sparks to Yucca Mountain on the so-called Mina Route has been dealt a severe blow by the Walker River Paiute Tribe, who withdrew permission for a new railroad line to cross its reservation about 50 miles southeast of Reno.

The tribal council adopted a resolution Tuesday that dropped its participation in a federal environmental impact study for the route, said to be cheaper and shorter than the Caliente route in Eastern Nevada studied for the past decade.

"After considering the information we had gathered to date and discussions with our membership, the tribal council made the decision not to continue with the Department of Energy's process," tribal Chairwoman Genia Williams said in a news release.

"The tribe will not allow nuclear waste to be transported on rail through our reservation," Williams said.

The tribal council had faced pressure from tribal members, who had second thoughts about the tribal decision to become involved in the study last June, Williams said.

Bob Loux, head of the Nevada Office of Nuclear Projects, said he had heard from several dozen Schurz residents in the last few months.

"The growing and continued concern among tribal members in general is what pushed them over," he said. "We heard from some tribal members who were not comfortable with the information they were getting."

Reno and Sparks officials were becoming increasingly worried about nuclear waste traveling through Northern Nevada and the possibility of an accident, sabotage or terrorist act. Yucca Mountain would store up to 77,000 metric tons of nuclear waste from the nation's power plants and from other sources.

"I'm a happy camper," Sparks Mayor Geno Martini said of the tribe's reversal. "We are very appreciative of what they did and we will let them know."

At same time, Martini said he remains cautiously optimistic.

"As many times as this thing has died, hopefully this is the end of it. But you never know," he said.

With the loss of the Mina route, Loux said only a few rail shipments may go through Reno and Sparks, saying most shipments from the Pacific Northwest probably would continue south through the Central Valley, over to Las Vegas and onto Yucca Mountain.

Reno Mayor Bob Cashell said he also is pleased with the tribal decision. "That had put Reno and Sparks in a real tight box," he said.

Cashell said he remains opposed to Yucca Mountain until the cities are guaranteed continual funding for training and equipment for first responders to deal with a nuclear incident as well as money to keep the railroad tracks through the cities in top shape.

Using a "suite of routes" ending with the Mina corridor in Western Nevada, Loux and state consultants predicted up to half of the trains carrying nuclear waste would use a southern route to cross the country. These trains would use the southern route and then head north up the Central Valley in California, go over Donner Pass, through Reno and Sparks and then connect with the Mina route at Hazen.

A southern route and central Union Pacific route would provide more security against a terrorist attack and serve as a backup route during stormy weather and maintenance, Loux and state consultants said.

Once Yucca Mountain was to open, the shipments would occur over 24 years. It's not expected to open for another 10 to 15 years if it opens at all.

US Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a staunch opponent of the federal plan to entomb the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada, hailed the tribe's decision as another blow to the Yucca Mountain project, which he said was "on its last legs."

"We will keep fighting any route that keeps putting nuclear waste through Reno and Sparks," Martini said. "We aren't going to lose sight of the main point and that is to fight Yucca Mountain."

A bill that died last week in the Assembly would have required railroad yards to submit security plans to the state, partly in response to the nuclear shipments. Martini and a railroad official, driving a borrowed car, recently toured the entire Sparks railroad yard without being stopped. Martini called the experience scary and an eye opener.

But those accounts had nothing to do with the tribe's decision, Williams said.

"As a sovereign nation, we make a lot of decisions that are in the best interests of our tribe," Williams said.

About 900 people live in Schurz, the center of the 325,000-acre reservation. Loux said the only benefit the tribe would have received is a new railroad line on tribal lands north of Walker Lake, relocating a line that runs through the town.

Allen Benson, an Energy Department and Yucca Mountain spokesman in Las Vegas, said the tribe's decision means the Mina corridor will be dropped from the department's choices of potential rail lines to Yucca Mountain. But Benson said the Energy Department still would include the Mina route in an impact statement expected to be released in October.

Elimination of the Mina corridor "certainly simplifies DOE's options," said David Blee, executive director of the U.S. Transport Council, a coalition of nuclear waste shippers.

Susan Voyles SVOYLES@RGJ.COM

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