Editing Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository (section)

== Transportation of waste ==
The nuclear waste was planned to be shipped to the site by rail and/or truck in robust containers known as [[spent nuclear fuel shipping cask]]s, approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. While the routes in Nevada would have been public, in the other states the planned routes, dates and times of transport would have been secret for security reasons. State and tribal representatives would have been notified before shipments of spent nuclear fuel entered their jurisdictions.<ref name=ocrwm1>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080625143024/http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/transport/pdf/snf_transfaqs.pdf |archive-date=June 25, 2008 |title=Transportation of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste to Yucca Mountain: Frequently Asked Questions |date=January 2006 |publisher=OCRWM, DOE |page=5 |access-date=May 16, 2008 |url=http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/transport/pdf/snf_transfaqs.pdf}}</ref>

=== Nevada routes ===
[[File:Caliente Corridor.jpg|thumb|upright=3|The proposed transportation route of spent nuclear fuel through Nevada]]

Within Nevada, the planned primary mode of transportation was via rail through the Caliente Corridor. This corridor starts in [[Caliente, Nevada|Caliente]], Nevada, traveling along the northern and western borders of the Nevada Test Site for approximately {{convert|200|mi}}. It then turns south.<ref>{{cite web
 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070216221527/http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/transport/eis.shtml |archive-date=February 16, 2007
 | title= Environmental Impact Statement for the Alignment of a Rail Line in the Caliente Corridor
 | publisher= OCRWM, DoE
 | access-date= May 16, 2008 | url= http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/transport/eis.shtml}}</ref>

Other options that were being considered included a rail route along the Mina corridor. This rail route would have originated at the Fort Churchill Siding rail line, near [[Wabuska, Nevada|Wabuska]]. The proposed corridor would have proceeded southeast through [[Hawthorne, Nevada|Hawthorne]], [[Nevada State Route 265|Blair Junction]], Lida Junction and Oasis Valley. At Oasis Valley, the rail line would have turned north-northeast towards Yucca Mountain. Use of this rail corridor by the DOE would have required permission from the Walker River Paiute Tribe in order to cross their land. As the first {{convert|54|mi}} of the proposed corridor was owned by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), additional permission from the DoD would have to be granted.<ref>MinaFeasabilityStudyRev01_26OCT06_alt1.pdf.</ref>

The Nevada Center for Biological Diversity and the Nevada Attorney General have expressed concern about the transportation routes, "through any number of sensitive habitats."<ref name=usa />

=== Impacts ===
Since the early 1960s, the U.S. has safely conducted more than 3,000 shipments of spent nuclear fuel without any harmful release of radioactive material. This safety record is comparable to the worldwide experience where more than 70,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel have been transported since 1970 – an amount approximately equal to the total amount of spent nuclear fuel that would have been shipped to Yucca Mountain.<ref name=ocrwm1/>

But cities were still concerned about the transport of radioactive waste on highways and railroads that may have passed through heavily populated areas. Dr. Robert Halstead, a transportation adviser to the state of Nevada since 1988, said of transportation of the high-level waste, "They would heavily affect cities like Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, in the Chicago metropolitan area, in Omaha." "Coming out of the south, the heaviest impacts would be in Atlanta, in Nashville, St. Louis, Kansas City, moving across through Salt Lake City, through [[downtown Las Vegas]], up to Yucca Mountain. And the same cities would be affected by rail shipments as well." [[Spencer Abraham]] (DOE) said, "I think there's a general understanding that we move hazardous materials in this country, an understanding that the federal government knows how to do it safely."<ref>{{cite web
 | url= https://www.cbsnews.com/news/yucca-mountain-23-10-2003/
 | title= Yucca Mountain: Transporting Nuclear Waste May Put Millions At Risk
 | date= July 25, 2004 |work=[[CBS News]]
 | access-date= May 16, 2008}}</ref>

In October 2018, a state senator from Utah argued that transferring nuclear waste from other states to Yucca Mountain on state highways and railways could be a health hazard.<ref name="Judy Fahys for KUER, 2018">
{{cite web
 |url=https://www.kuer.org/post/utah-legislator-wants-colleagues-support-opposing-yucca-mountain-repository#stream/0
 |title=Utah Legislator Wants Colleagues' Support Opposing Yucca Mountain Repository
 |last=Fahys
 |first=Judy
 |date=October 23, 2018
 |website=kuer.org
 |publisher=[[KUER]]
 |access-date= May 13, 2019
 }}</ref>