Message posted by Andre' M. Dall'au on April 25, 2004 at 13:46:10 PST:
Taken off a NRC website
DOE Selects Caliente as Preferred Route for Yucca Railway Shipments
The Department of Energy has selected a 319-mile rail corridor from
Caliente, Nev., as its choice for the construction of a railway line to
serve the Yucca Mountain repository. A corridor is a strip of land, about
0.25 miles wide, that encompasses possible routes through which DOE could
build a rail line.
DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, which made the
announcement Dec. 23, identified the 331-mile Carlin corridor as its
secondary choice.
DOE said, "The attributes of the Caliente and Carlin corridors, including
their more remote location and the reduced likelihood of land use
conflicts, appear to best assure the safe, secure and timely transport of
materials to Yucca Mountain."
The Caliente rail corridor was one of five corridors studied by DOE in its
final environmental impact statement for the Yucca Mountain project.
Three of the five potential corridors, Caliente, Caliente-Chalk Mountain,
and Carlin, would approach Yucca Mountain from north of the Nellis Air
Force Range. Two southern corridors, Jean and Valley-Modified, would run
through the Las Vegas Valley.
DOE said that, no sooner than 30 days from the publication of its
announcement in the Federal Register on Dec. 29, 2003, it intends to decide
whether to use mostly rail transportation through Nevada, as well as
confirm its corridor selection. A mostly truck scenario is also being
considered.
If DOE adopts the mostly rail scenario in Nevada, it will formally announce
the choice by issuing a Record of Decision that will be published in the
Federal Register.
DOE will also issue a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register to develop
an environmental impact statement on the specific railway alignment within
the selected corridor. The department anticipates holding public scoping
meetings on that issue in early-to-mid February.
The exact date, time and locations of the meetings would be announced in
the Notice of Intent. No actual construction of a rail line within the
selected corridor can take place until completion of the scoping process,
which is expected to take several years.
Under the department's current plans, no waste will be transported to the
repository until 2010, when DOE anticipates it will have received a license
from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to open the repository.
In Reply to: Yucca Rail line posted by lone wolf on April 25, 2004 at 7:46:45 PST:
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