Nuclear waste haulers are one step closer to being busier. The U.S. House of Representatives has approved Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the disposal site for the nation’s nuclear waste.

Although the measure was overwhelmingly approved by the House, a firm majority is not yet apparent in the Senate, which still must vote on it. However, the Senate is not expected to act on it until late July, reports the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.
Critics of the plan say the thousands of radioactive truck and train shipments through 43 states would be vulnerable to accidents and terrorist attacks. Since 1960, reports the news service, trains and trucks carrying a total of 5 million pounds of spent nuclear fuel have traveled 1.6 million miles and had eight accidents, none of which released any radioactive material.
The Department of Energy wants to open Yucca Mountain to nuclear waste shipments from the nation’s 103 nuclear power plants by 2010. More scientific studies must be done before the site is licensed, so it could be even longer. Currently the waste is scattered at sites in 39 states.

To learn more about transport of radioactive materials by truck, read ”Freight Focus: Nuclear Know-How” in the October 2001 issue of RoadStar magazine.