"This is critical for the citizens of the state of Utah," Walker said. "As you can tell, we are extremely concerned about this issue."

Parkyn, a nuclear engineer, insisted that PFS does not want the plant to be a permanent repository.

Seventy-two locations across the United States are producing nuclear waste, mostly through production of power. Radioactive waste has been piling up, he said, and it would be better to store it temporarily at one site than 72.

Once the PFS plant is licensed, "it will take a lot of years to get it up and running," he added.

Parkyn outlined efforts by PFS to develop the best possible rail car for shipping the casks. Shipments would be via dedicated trains, that is, railroad trains without any other material aboard.

Also, because of safety concerns and because the Goshutes requested it, the waste would not be unloaded from the shipping containers. Instead, it would remain stored inside the casks pending shipment to a permanent repository.

"They would be sealed leaving the (nuclear power) plant site. We would not handle fuel," he said. The company would only use casks that were certified by the NRC, he said.

Accidents are less likely on rail routes than highways, according to Parkyn. Also, it would be easier to protect against terrorism on the privately owned railroads than on the public highways.

Speaking of safely using rail cars, he added, "We looked for a new level of precision, which meant we built cars from scratch." The cars would have special undercarriages to reduce the chance of tipping and to keep wheels from leaving the vehicle in case of an accident. A new method of braking would help the train stop in a shorter distance.

Monitoring devices would check 20 parameters, including the temperature of bearings in the cars' wheels, and GPS position, and report this information by way of satellite. Cars would be subjected to what he called "predictive maintenance."

According to a slide beamed onto a screen while Parkyn talked, the concept is "safe equipment operating on optimized route."

The two-day meeting ended Thursday at the Sheraton City Center Hotel, 150 W. 500 South.

---

E-mail: bau@desnews.com