U.S. Transport Coalition

Statement by Jack Edlow President, Edlow International April 4, 2002

In recent months, anti-Yucca Mountain opponents have subjected Americans to an increasingly demagogic, irresponsible campaign to willfully mischaracterize and sensationalize nuclear waste transportation and its safety. While the shrillness of this campaign and the egregious falsehoods regarding nuclear materials transportation no doubt reflects the mounting desperation of Yucca Mountain opponents; their tactics are dishonorable and wrong. Those of us who have been involved in the business of nuclear waste transportation for as many as four decades can no longer sit by and watch these disinformation campaigns pollute the airwaves and newsprint.

Fortunately, the tactics and disinformation of the anti-Yucca Mountain opponents will not stand up to scrutiny or the test of time. To that end, today, two of the United States' leading nuclear transportation companies -- Edlow International and NAC International -- are forming a coalition to combat the misinformation regarding nuclear materials transport and its safety. Others who are involved firsthand in the business of transportation, transport technology, emergency preparedness and security will join us in the coming days and weeks. Given the commencement of active Congressional deliberation of the Yucca Mountain recommendation next week, our goal will be to serve, in effect, as expert witnesses with respect to the many allegations that are expected to be made regarding potential transportation to Yucca Mountain. We will also seek to educate the American public, the Congress and the media with respect to the fact about nuclear materials transportation and safety.

Our job will not be a difficult one inasmuch as there is no factual basis for the central claims that are being made by Yucca Mountain's opponents. The fact is that nuclear materials transportation has an impressive, unblemished safety and operations track record over 40 years, both in the United States and globally. More than 3,000 shipments of spent fuel have been carried out safely and successfully over an estimated 1.7 million miles of U.S. rails and roads. Internationally, more fuel has already been safely and successfully transported than is scheduled to be shipped to Yucca Mountain. Spent fuel has and will be shipped in robust, state-of-the-art Nuclear Regulatory Commission-certified containers with tons of steel and radiation shielding. These containers must meet demanding impact, thermal, submersion and puncture tests. Shipments to Yucca Mountain will travel along pre-approved transportation routes, which are coordinated closely with state authorities and governed under U.S. Department of Transportation regulations. Only several hundred shipments will be required annually - the overwhelming majority by rail - to move fuel to Yucca Mountain. Emergency response preparedness and training are already in place as are security and safeguards procedures. Terrorism threats are not new to nuclear materials transportation. Our companies - and others - have already met the challenge of shipping nuclear materials under a climate of terrorism and other comparable conditions.

Abraham Lincoln said "you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time. But you can not fool all of the people all the time." We believe the American people will not be fooled by innuendo, hyperbole and mistruths regarding nuclear materials transportation -- and we look forward to meeting this challenge and to validating this axiom once again.