Bob wrote on January 22, 2009 01:15 PM: Fyi Ugly, the rail line is nothing new. It has always been planned.

Transportation Solved by Clinton wrote on January 22, 2009 12:58 PM: Robert Halstead said he is concerned about the lack of discussion of the dangerous radioactive nature of spent nuclear fuel and the lack of a requirement that dedicated trains be required for all shipments.

The point was made in the R-J on 1-17-2008, that Bill Clinton and Bill Richardson held 21 formal draft EIS hearings (9 in Nevada) in 1999 and 2000, to establish that danger from transportation of nuclear waste is less then such hazardous materials as chorine and propane. This has been a long closed issue, but still raised by Nevada even though they will not do anything about chlorine tankers running by the Vegas Strip. Bill Richardson was engaged in preparing a positive the Site Recommendation right before he left office.

Transportation of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is not a problem. If Nevada representatives would demand similar protection for Chlorine tankers as will be in place for SNF such as dedicate trains, exclusion zones, evacuation plans, GPS locators, armed guards (to protect from terrorist with TOW missiles), track and signal inspects, alerts to local officials of the location of hazardous materials, trained emergency responders then we could be less concerned about the potential Bhopal like deaths from a toxic laden tankers of 90,000 people.

Sudden Concern about cost wrote on January 22, 2009 12:56 PM: "With the outgoing administration, they wanted to check off things, and they left out some of the controversial things, like cost," he said.

Robert Halstead said "the cost of shipping nuclear waste and spent fuel assemblies in what are called "transportation, aging and disposal" canisters probably will be between $10 billion and $20 billion, including some $3 billion to build a rail line from Caliente to Yucca Mountain.

Last I looked the cask as paid by the nuclear power electric rate payers. Why does he care?

The cask and shipping cost is in the is in the total project budget. I bet that is where he got his number - so what is the question Robert Halstead

By slow walking the project Harry Reid does not care about cost why does Robert Halstead.

It a Draft Bruce wrote on January 22, 2009 12:49 PM: Former Sparks mayor and television sports Bruce Breslow, who replaced confessed crook and lobbyist Bob Loux this month as the agency's executive director, said the plan is "ripe for us to respond to because it lacks so much specificity."

What about draft did Bruce Breslow not understand.Comments on the draft to help shape the final "National Transportation Plan" into a more detailed document answering the questions that the public has.

Ugly American wrote on January 22, 2009 12:03 PM: I'm glad their finally talking about a rail line instead of driving it on the roads. But Yucca is still not optimal. It has water running though it and it's near a dormant volcano that has had multiple earthquakes in just the past year.

What the US needs is spent fuel reprocessing (like France) & breeder reactors (like Japan) closer to where the power is consumed. The vast majority of reactors in the US are east of the Mississippi and it would make more sense to minimize the transportation.

letsciencedecide wrote on January 22, 2009 10:19 AM: Contentions, you should not be surprised. The anti’s (which includes the Nevada press) don’t want the general public to see them. Nevada got spanked badly for failing to comply with the legal requirements, lack of technical experts, and overall lack of viable contentions. DOE’s clearly paved the way for the NRC to throw out the entirety of Nevada’s fake science. The incompetence continues. The state has no scientific argument to stand on so they must rely on politics.

I hope Obama waits to hear technical arguments before he acts on Harry’s behalf.

letsciencedecide wrote on January 22, 2009 07:41 AM: Interesting headline???

Nevadans Criticize???

Halstead lives in Wisconsin. So in reality the headline should be: "Nevadan criticizes".

Bruce is living up to the reason he was picked, he can give a professional "sound bite".

Contentions wrote on January 22, 2009 06:22 AM: Though not directly related to this Yucca transportation story, I did notice that the DOE has already responded to those thousand plus pages of Contentions that the State and Counties submitted last month. They are at:

http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/licensing.htm

I am somewhat surprised that there has been little, if any press on this.