MARK WAITE / PVT The extension of this rail line just south of Hawthorne, about 90 miles northwest of Tonopah, is being considered as an alternativet to building a new rail line west from Caliente in eastern Nevada. A Nye County commissioner will travel to Japan next month to study shipments of nuclear waste in that country. Advertisement

TONOPAH -- Nye County Commissioner Roberta "Midge" Carver will be saying "sayonara" soon as she travels to Japan from Oct. 21 through Oct. 28 to inspect nuclear waste processing facilities.

Nye County Commissioners approved her trip, with funds coming out of the nuclear waste repository program funds at an estimated cost of $8,500.

The purpose of the trip, which is being coordinated by the U.S. Transportation Council, is to review key aspects of the programs for the safe transport of spent nuclear fuel. She will travel with Bob Gamble, the county's paid representative to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The only question about the safari came from Commissioner Joni Eastley, who wanted to refute any misconception that Nye County wanted a facility to reprocess nuclear waste, one of the site visits on the tour.

"It was not my understanding that Nye County was going to get involved in any way with fuel recycling facilities or lobbying to get them in Nye County, or negotiating with outside companies to get them located here," she said. Carver said that's not an issue she will be concerned with in Japan.

But she said recycled nuclear fuel could eventually be transported through Nye County.

Eastley said Nye County's role in the project needs to be limited to independent, scientific oversight.

Pahrump resident Jim Petell urged commissioners to consider the seismic risks of the project.

Nye County Commission Chairman Gary Hollis, the county commission's liaison on the Yucca Mountain project, said he was invited to go on the trip but may have to monitor a legislative bill on Yucca Mountain about that time. He endorsed the overseas trips.

"They're mandatory. They're absolutely essential how we know their cask is working that transports the fuel from the reactor plant to the recycling facility or wherever they store (it).

Our goal is to get the fuel to Yucca Mountain as safely as possible," Hollis said. Asked whether it was possible to monitor the process in the U.S., he said, "We ship fuel all the time, but it's not being made public all the time." Hollis will travel to Washington, D.C., at the end of this month for meetings with congressmen on the Yucca Mountain project.

The memorandum from Interim County Manager Ron Williams on the travel request states Carver's visit to facilities for transferring nuclear waste casks, recycling fuel and waste storage facilities is of particular interest to Nye County.

Carver traveled to France last year to visit shipping facilities in Cherbourg and a reprocessing plant in the Hague on a jaunt coordinated by the U.S. Transport Council.

The Nye County Community Protection Plan, adopted in August 2002, states that "all shipments of spent nuclear fuel or high-level waste to interim or permanent storage facilities in the site county (Nye County) should be by rail, using routes which avoid site county communities and public mainline highways and which are selected in consultation with the Nye County Commission. No shipment of highly radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain should use the two-lane, rural, public highways of the site county."

The plan states shipments of nuclear waste on two-lane rural highways pose special risks for radiological exposure, accident and a stigma for communities along the 371 miles of highway routes.

The community protection plan explains Nye County's perspectives on the project to ship nuclear waste from 35 states to Yucca Mountain, describes potential effects of the project and suggests steps to protect Nye County. Recently, the scientific community has expressed a renewed interest in studying the recycling of nuclear waste to reduce storage space and other benefits.

Carver's hotel bill in Japan will be $150 per night, or $1,050 for seven nights. In-country air and train travel and meals are estimated to cost another $2,000. The U.S. Transport Council is making the travel arrangements; it said the round-trip airfare to Japan is available for as little as $970 on Expedia.com.

The agenda includes a welcome dinner; meeting with a federation of Japanese nuclear energy organizations; travel to the Rokkosho nuclear complex in northern Japan; a tour of the Tokai nuclear waste interim storage facility; touring the Hitachi-Zosen facility where nuclear transport casks are manufactured; and on the last day, a cultural, sightseeing tour of Kyoto.

Commissioners, however, turned thumbs-down an amended contract with the Nevada Environmental Research and Monitoring Institute through March 31, 2007, to help negotiate a partnership agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Nye County had a similar agreement in 1991 and 1992. The maximum total compensation would've been $250,000.

Commissioner Eastley said Nye County officials can themselves negotiate with DOE.