Federal officials and political leaders are at odds over the health hazards of shipping low-level nuclear waste through the Las Vegas Valley.
The agency announced last week it would divert trucks carrying low-level nuclear waste to the Nevada Test Site away from Hoover Dam and the Las Vegas Valley.
The rerouting could cost as much as $4 million, raising the question of whether the risk justifies the cost.
"Spending $4 million isn't worth it because it's dangerous. It's worth spending the money because of people's concerns," Energy Department spokeswoman Nancy Harkess said. "If the taxpayer feels endangered by (low-level waste), then it shouldn't come through Las Vegas."
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would oversee the hauling of high-level nuclear waste if a permanent repository is approved at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. But the regulation of low-level waste is left to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Robert McGuire, a hazardous materials safety administrator for the Transportation Department, downplayed the public safety impact of a low-level spill.
"People getting sustained doses over extended periods of time at a low-level spill would be comparable to having dental X-rays or other kinds of medical diagnostic tests," said McGuire. "Generally, it's the kind of cumulative radiation you get from frequently taking high-altitude flights from coast to coast."
But Sen. Harry Reid says anything that is toxic should be kept out of urban areas, even if it does cost taxpayers.
"I'll bet if you stop anybody who lives in Las Vegas, Henderson or Boulder City and ask them whether they think $4 million is too much money to keep it off the road that they'll tell you they'd be happy to pay their proportionate share of that cost," Reid said. "Spread that cost over the nation, and it's next to nothing."
According to an Energy Department quarterly report, 46 trucks carrying nearly 100,000 cubic feet of low-level nuclear waste were among the congested traffic that passed through Southern Nevada on Interstate 15 and U.S. Highway 95 in the first quarter of 2000.
The shipments were destined for the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Included in the shipments were radioactive dirt, concrete, office furniture, gloves and other materials that once made up the plutonium-producing Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Golden, Colo. The shipments accounted for 56 percent of the total amount shipped to Nevada during the first three months of the year.
The shipments are scheduled to continue until 2006.
After political pressure from Nevada elected officials, the Energy Department asked shippers to stop driving on busy Las Vegas Valley roads and highways, concerned that a spill could leak low-level contaminants near schools, businesses and residential areas.
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