Now you have a new reason to hate driving on I-95. Ridiculous drivers, clogged traffic, and massive trucks are mere trifles compared with the latest potential threat - a catastrophe involving nuclear waste.

Plans to use Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a waste storage site require the transportation of waste from some 70 old nuclear plants, such as the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Let's say there's a huge accident on I-95, something that happens daily. If this accident involves a truck carrying nuclear waste, Little Rhody's in big trouble.

According to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), a Washington, DC-based information center, the material to be shipped "contains the radiological equivalent of 40 times the persistent radioactivity released by the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima." The US House passed the White House-backed Yucca Mountain plan (with Representatives Patrick Kennedy and James Langevin in opposition), but it has yet to come to a vote in the Senate. Not surprisingly, Nevada residents vehemently oppose the plan. Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn vetoed the project, but Congress can override the veto.

Why would anyone support a seemingly ultra-dangerous plan like Yucca Mountain? The NIRS's Mary Olson cites the influence of the powerful nuclear industry. "Once nuclear waste is on the road, liability for it is transferred to the US taxpayer," she says.

On the other side, Energy Secretary Spenser Abraham is one of the major proponents of the Yucca Mountain plan. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Abraham told Nevada senators that he supports the plan because "nuclear waste would remain contained safely within Yucca Mountain, even after figuring for the effects of possible volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and `human intrusion' thousands of years in the future." Abraham continued, "I am convinced of the scientific soundness of the recommendation I have made. The soundness of this project has been established, and we should move ahead."

Jeff Benjamin, Exelon Nuclear's vice president for licensing and regulatory affairs, who backs the Yucca Mountain plan, told the Review-Journal, "The thing [transporting waste to the mountain] has been studied more than twice as long as we studied sending people to the moon."

The proposed truck routes for Yucca Mountain do not currently involve transportation through Rhode Island. Olson, however, says, "If the plan is passed, the government will likely privatize the waste carriers. You can be sure that if private trucks are carrying these loads, they will use 95." Even if I-95 isn't used, Providence is about 40 miles downwind from the Pilgrim nuclear plant in Massachusetts. A nifty Web site called map science (www.mapscience.org) says that thousands of Rhode Islanders live within five miles of a currently proposed route (if you type in your address at the site, it reveals the proximity of shipping paths to your doorstep).

Olson also cites the issue of environmental justice. Noting that low-income residents often live near train tracks and highways, she adds, "Train tracks do not go through your posh neighborhoods."

Issue Date: July 5 - 11, 2002