Bill Would Require Atomic Waste Shipments on Special Trains Only

Railroad shipments of highly radioactive wastes could move only on special trains devoted exclusively to that material under legislation proposed Friday.

Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.) said his bill was in response to concerns that the Energy Department might abandon its practice of using “dedicated” trains for radioactive shipments from the damaged Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania to Idaho.

The legislation, he said, is intended to ensure the safe transportation of high-level radioactive wastes, including spent fuel rods from nuclear plants.

“At this time . . . it appears that the use of mixed trains to transport high-level radioactive materials is inevitable unless Congress takes action to prevent it,” said Danforth, the ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, which has authority over transportation issues.

The TMI shipments pass through Missouri en route to the National Engineering Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Ida. In March, a car collided with a train at a crossing in St. Louis, but there was no damage to casks holding the waste.

The shipments now are on trains that carry nothing other than the radioactive materials housed in specially designed containers. However, Danforth said an Energy Department official testified at a Senate hearing last month that the agency thought the dedicated trains were unnecessary and that it might reconsider the policy.