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NWRPO Repository Oversight Program Elements

Socioeconomic, Transportation,  and Emergency Response

Regulatory and Licensing Oversight

Government and Community Relations

Program
Management

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
If DOE receives
a license from the
NRC to build and operate a repository
at Yucca Mountain, 
it will begin shipping nuclear waste from commercial and government-owned sites to the repository sometime after 2017.
(DOE/EIS-0369)

SOCIOECONOMIC, TRANSPORTATION, AND
EMERGENCY RESPONSE

SOCIOECONOMIC

Construction and operation of a repository and associated waste transportation facilities would significantly affect socioeconomic conditions in Nye County.  The Nye County NWRPO socioeconomic program monitors key Nye County socioeconomic indicators and  conducts investigations of specific Nye County socioeconomic conditions which could be affected by development and operation of high-level nuclear waste disposal, storage, or transportation facilities.


TRANSPORTATION

Nye County needs to be certain that construction and operation of the repository and associated transportation systems provide for the safety of Nevada citizens and do not cause undue environmental, socioeconomic, or other impacts.

Nye County provided comments to DOE summarizing concerns with the ways two environmental documents address the overall issue of rail transportation in Nevada and the nation (see Nye County comments on DOE/EIS-0250F-S2 and DOE/EIS-0369).  Key points include:

  • Nye County appreciates that the preferred alternative now includes, by definition, shared use of Nevada Rail by commercial freight operations;
     

  • A through-going rail system (e.g. Caliente to Yucca to Jean or Mina to Yucca to Jean) would maximize national transportation options and the flexibility of the Class 1 railroads on the major northern and southern, east to west rail routes; eliminate the necessity for rail shipments through the Las Vegas Valley; and
     

  • Nye County's "Rail Transportation Economic Impact Evaluation and Planning Study for the Caliente and Mina Corridors" estimates that making the Mina route a through-going route would provide superior economic development and cost advantages when compared to those of a single spur terminating at the repository.
     

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Radioactive waste shipments from 35 states will converge in Nye County where waste will be handled, stored, emplaced, and potentially retrieved for further handling and treatment.  The ability to prevent accidents (radiological and non-radiological) and to respond effectively to any accidents that may occur is a key concern of Nye County residents. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This assessment
estimates the
economic benefits of commercial traffic shipment, assuming shared use of Nevada Rail, under four
scenarios:
a Caliente Corridor
(east access only),
a Caliente Corridor
with a Southern Extension
(east-south access),
a Mina Corridor
(north access only),
and a Mina Corridor
with a Southern Extension (north-south access).
(NWRPO, 2007)

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