Nuclear waste would take railroad route to Nevada

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Radioactive waste bound for a planned national nuclear dump in Nevada would be transported by trains on a 319-mile rail line to be built across the state, the federal government announced Monday.

The department has not said what routes it intends to use to transport the waste from 127 sites across the nation to a planned rail head near Caliente, 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas near the Utah line.

Nevada officials and anti-dump activists have derided the Caliente-to-Yucca Mountain route — which loops around the vast Nevada Test Site and Nellis Air Force Base bombing range — as expensive and dangerous.

Bob Loux, state nuclear projects chief, predicted Monday that despite the announcement, the Energy Department eventually will decide to ship nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain almost exclusively by truck.