Governor Joins Foes of A-Fuel Shipments

Gov. George Deukmejian joined other state and local officials on Thursday in urging the U.S. Department of Energy not to ship radioactive nuclear fuel rods from Taiwan through the Port of Long Beach.

“I’d like to know, since this spent fuel is going to be deposited in . . . South Carolina, why can’t they just take it directly there?” the governor asked during a brief interview in San Diego, where he was giving a speech. “I haven’t gotten an answer to that question.”

Earlier in the day, Deukmejian spokeswoman Donna Lipper said, “The Administration is not convinced that there is a necessity to bring the (shipments) through Long Beach. We feel it’s worth the extra cost and time to take them directly to South Carolina (by sea). We urge the Department of Energy to reconsider this alternative.”

While Long Beach city and port officials have opposed the shipments, the Deukmejian Administration had been silent on its position until Thursday.

Without warning, the Energy Department notified Deukmejian on Jan. 17 that the first of 18 shipments of used fuel rods from a nuclear power plant in Taiwan would arrive at Long Beach Harbor in March to be trucked to South Carolina for reclamation.

A long line of state and port area officials also voiced opposition Thursday to the proposal during a public hearing in Long Beach.

It is unclear exactly what state or local officials could do to stop the shipments, because federal transportation laws supersede local ordinances. However, Energy Department officials said at the hearing that they had not made a final decision on the matter.

“We’re not going to say come hell or high water we’re going to bring these shipments here,” said Energy Department spokesman James Gaver. He said a decision might not be made for several weeks.

During the three-hour hearing, Energy Department representatives were repeatedly heckled and interrupted as they stressed the safety of the shipments and the national security need to return used nuclear fuel to this country. No radioactive material has been released during 6,000 shipments of spent fuel rods in the United States since 1963, they said.

The rods are being returned to this country to limit access to nuclear material from which weapons can be made, the officials explained. Entry through Long Beach would cut in half the time and cost of the shipments, when compared with a route through the Panama Canal to a port near the South Carolina reprocessing plant, they said.

Long Beach city, state and congressional representatives said, however, that such savings do not justify the risks.

Overland shipments create “many more opportunities for something to go wrong,” said Harvey Collins of the state Department of Health Services’ emergency response unit. He said federal officials have not adequately explained why the shipments have to move through a California port.

Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Tom Houston, speaking for Mayor Tom Bradley, urged anti-shipment solidarity.

“Let me stress that this is really not a local problem, but a problem that affects all of California,” he said. “For if the Long Beach Harbor is not forced to accept the cargo, (the Department of Energy) is likely to go to some other California port.”

When approached by the government about accepting the same shipments last May, the Port of Los Angeles quietly rebuffed the idea and recommended that they be routed through the Panama Canal, Houston said.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), in a statement read Thursday by an aide, also protested the proposal.

“I am deeply disturbed at the use of Long Beach Harbor as a delivery point for dangerous radioactive wastes,” Waxman said. “I do not believe that the environment or the population are being adequately protected. . . .”

Waxman said the foreign nuclear waste would be shipped with less care than waste produced in this country. The Long Beach shipments would not be controlled by Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules, he said. The regulations require armed escorts and a 24-hour communications center for domestic shipments of nuclear rods while in cities.

James McJunkin, Long Beach Harbor executive director, said he was confident that the Energy Department “will not force this down our throats.” However, if the department decides to send the shipments to his port, he said, it should also provide a detailed environmental impact report on the damage a major accident might cause.

Energy Department spokesmen said there is no need for a report. Bruce Twining, who directed the federal presentation, said there was very little chance that a cask would crack open in a shipping accident. Even if it did, he said, the radioactive material in it is metallic and would not spread easily, as would a gas.

A second official said tests have shown that an hour’s exposure to material 10 times more radioactive than the spent fuel rods would cause no deaths or cancers.

Times staff writer Jim Schachter in San Diego contributed to this report.