Potential train routes for radioactive waste on its way to Yucca Mountain, courtesy of the MapScience Center Click on the map above for enlarged version

Yucca Mountain seems pretty far from Houston. But if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses the controversial nuclear waste disposal facility that was approved by Congress, tons of high-level radioactive refuse may pass through our city on the way to its new home. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has not finalized the transport routes from the nation’s widespread nuclear facilities to the Nevada site, however preliminary maps indicate that several Houston rail lines meet their regulations and are under consideration.

The 77,000 metric tons of waste planned for Yucca Mountain would be moved by trucks, trains, and barges, according to the DOE’s Environmental Impact Statement. How much will be sent by each method is uncertain.

If trucks are the primary mode of transportation, the DOE plan calls for 80,000 shipments along major highways over the life of the 38-year project. That averages 2,760 truckloads per year; for the last 40 years, there have been only about 100 truckloads annually, according to Nevada Transportation Advisor Robert J. Halstead’s testimony before Congress. At least two guards will escort each truck, and state troopers will accompany them through urban areas.

In this scenario, 8,411 trucks would pass through Texas.

If most of the waste travels by train, there will be more than 18,000 shipments, plus 3,000 shipments by truck or barge. More than 12,500 shipments would travel through Texas.

Officials are still debating whether the waste will be integrated into trains hauling other commercial freight, or if there will be dedicated nuclear waste transport trains.

Although caution will certainly be taken to protect the shipments, data from the Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration indicate that accidents are possible if not probable. In Texas alone there were 2,391 fatal semi-truck wrecks between 1994 and 2001, with 577 happening on interstates. And there were 9,051 train accidents in the state between 1990 and 2001, including 2,427 derailments and 399 collisions.

Texans might be more inclined to take these risks if it meant ridding the state of nuclear waste. But, after the Yucca Mountain project is complete in 2046, Texas’ Comanche Peak and South Texas Project reactors – the only nuclear facilities in the state – will have built up almost 3,000 metric tons of high level nuclear waste that will remain on-site, according to DOE calculations. That’s nearly three times the amount of waste that is in storage now.

For more information on the transport of nuclear waste, and how close it might come to your house, visit the MapScience Center, a project of Environmental Working Group and the EWG Action Fund, at www.mapscience.org.