Caution Is the Right Course for Nuclear Waste Shipments

Did you ever have a neighbor who piled every piece of his junk--old washing machines, hand lawn mowers, rusty chains, etc.--into his backyard until somebody’s pet was lost in there or a child was hurt while playing?

Do you gnash your teeth over the eccentric next door who fills up his service porch with paperwork dating to the Eisenhower administration, rendering it a firetrap?

Did you ever look in the trunk of your son’s or daughter’s car for a needed tool only to find it buried behind old shopping bags and magazines?

Surprising as it seems, we--all of us--are in the same position as the pack-rat neighbor, the paper-hording fire starter and the driving junk collector because we in California run two active nuclear power plants and two more sites at which we temporarily store high-level nuclear waste. Spent fuel rods from nuclear submarines and weapons manufacturers come through our ports. This high-level nuclear waste and spent fuel being shipped through California will be hazardous to all living things for thousands of years.

This, of course, is a problem we created ourselves. As a society, we encouraged the development of nuclear power plants in an effort to stem air pollution and reduce our dependence on imported fuel. We choose to include nuclear submarines in our defense arsenal. Now we have to dispose, permanently, of our trash so that it poses no threat to others or ourselves.

The good news is that this problem is getting more and more attention. The bad news is that there are too many opportunities for quick and potentially dangerous solutions.

Every week, it seems there is another story about problems in disposing of nuclear waste. A private company opened part of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico to store the stuff, only to find that solvents and other substances that could react dangerously had been mixed into the first proposed shipment. Foreign governments, fulfilling treaties required by the United States, continue to ship high-level nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel into California ports for transport and storage. Seismic data indicates that Yucca Mountain, Nev., one targeted disposal site, may be geologically unsuitable. California Indian tribes have protested opening a Ward Valley disposal site on holy ground, a site that also may be too near the Colorado River for safety.

Some legislators, myself included, think the state Department of Health Services lacks statutory authority to buy that site without our approval, and information just released shows that Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison have concluded that Ward Valley would be much more expensive than existing out-of-state dump sites.

Yet waste is building up, some of it with such a long half-life that it must be buried in foolproof casks in unassailable chambers. Suitable sites for safer disposal must and will be found. When that happens, we will quickly face the problem of a huge increase in the number and frequency of nuclear convoys rolling though our sleeping cities and agriculture countryside.

Although nuclear transportation accidents have been extremely rare, just one serious incident could be devastating. Even minimal exposure to leakage from one of these shipments could result in cancer-causing genetic injury. The smallest contamination of property could result in millions of dollars of cleanup costs.

The answer is to err on the side of caution. It is time to improve federal guidelines by creating tougher standards to safeguard our health, property and peace of mind. We have an all-too-rare opportunity in the creation of public policy to prevent a problem before anyone is injured. We have time to do it right.

To that end, I have introduced legislation to enact strong state regulation of nuclear shipments, with local participation and public information as key elements. It would require the California Highway Patrol to designate shipping routes and times, to conduct at least one public hearing on each proposed route before adopting it and to publish a report of routes and times.

The state fire marshall would be required to develop a statewide safety training program to be implemented locally for emergency response personnel who would be called on in case of an accident. The Department of Health Services would be mandated to designate trained inspectors to examine shipment vehicles and casks at points of entry and origin. Shippers would be required to carry a minimum of $25 million in indemnity insurance, to track each shipment electronically and to pay a user fee to be assessed by the Department of Health Services. To prevent terrorist attacks as well as accidents, it also mandates that each shipment be accompanied by security and safety escorts, at least one of which would travel in a separate vehicle.

It is already too late to make sure that the trash never piles up in the yard or on the porch. But we can prepare for the safest journey to the dump.