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ROCKVILLE -
A new round of testing has found that casks used to transport dangerous nuclear waste are capable of surviving a catastrophe such as Baltimore's Howard Street Tunnel fire with no more than minor releases of radioactivity, according to a report presented to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel yesterday.
NRC experts found that one of three types of cylinders commonly used to carry spent nuclear fuel would withstand such a fire with no radioactive release whatsoever. They said a fire as hot as the 2001 Howard Street blaze could breach the seals on two other cask models, but concluded that the amount of radioactive material released would be "very small."
The hearing by the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste was part of the NRC's consideration of the best ways to carry out the Bush administration's plan to ship highly radioactive spent fuel from the nation's nuclear power plants to be stored at Nevada's Yucca Mountain starting about 2010.
Critics of the Yucca Mountain plan questioned the methodology and scientific validity of the report. "We would expect virtually all NRC casks to fail significantly," said Bob Halted, a consultant who represented the state of Nevada at yesterday's meeting.
The Baltimore fire occurred after a CSX train carrying flammable chemicals derailed in the tunnel July 18, 2001. The fire, which lasted more than three days, tied up East Coast rail traffic and forced evacuations of parts of downtown.
Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the Department of Energy, said he could not rule out use of the tunnel to transport nuclear waste. But he said the department would work with local officials before selecting a route.
NRC officials said the severity of the Baltimore fire raised questions about whether the packages used to transport spent nuclear fuel would withstand such an accident. Under some scenarios, waste from the Calvert Cliffs plant in Southern Maryland could move through Baltimore to Yucca Mountain.
A 2002 study by a private consultant, New York-based Radioactive Waste Management Associates, said that more than 300,000 people could have been exposed to radiation from the Howard Street incident had there been containers of spent nuclear fuel on the train.
The NRC took issue with that study but launched an investigation by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that yielded the report presented yesterday.
Under current standards, nuclear fuel packages must be capable of surviving a 30-minute, "fully engulfing" fire with an average temperature of 1,475 degrees. According to the National Institute of Standards, the temperature of the tunnel wall surface exceeded 1,500 degrees, with maximum temperatures in the flames of 1,800 degrees.
Earl Easton of the NRC's Spent Fuel Project Office said the report shows there's no need to change current requirements. But Halted urged additional research using a different set of assumptions. Among other things, he said, the testing should look at whether the casks could survive at the hottest temperatures registered in the tunnel fire.
"This controversy is not going to be closed quickly," he said.
NRC experts found that one of three types of cylinders commonly used to carry spent nuclear fuel would withstand such a fire with no radioactive release whatsoever. They said a fire as hot as the 2001 Howard Street blaze could breach the seals on two other cask models, but concluded that the amount of radioactive material released would be "very small."
The hearing by the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste was part of the NRC's consideration of the best ways to carry out the Bush administration's plan to ship highly radioactive spent fuel from the nation's nuclear power plants to be stored at Nevada's Yucca Mountain starting about 2010.
Critics of the Yucca Mountain plan questioned the methodology and scientific validity of the report. "We would expect virtually all NRC casks to fail significantly," said Bob Halted, a consultant who represented the state of Nevada at yesterday's meeting.
The Baltimore fire occurred after a CSX train carrying flammable chemicals derailed in the tunnel July 18, 2001. The fire, which lasted more than three days, tied up East Coast rail traffic and forced evacuations of parts of downtown.
Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the Department of Energy, said he could not rule out use of the tunnel to transport nuclear waste. But he said the department would work with local officials before selecting a route.
NRC officials said the severity of the Baltimore fire raised questions about whether the packages used to transport spent nuclear fuel would withstand such an accident. Under some scenarios, waste from the Calvert Cliffs plant in Southern Maryland could move through Baltimore to Yucca Mountain.
A 2002 study by a private consultant, New York-based Radioactive Waste Management Associates, said that more than 300,000 people could have been exposed to radiation from the Howard Street incident had there been containers of spent nuclear fuel on the train.
The NRC took issue with that study but launched an investigation by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that yielded the report presented yesterday.
Under current standards, nuclear fuel packages must be capable of surviving a 30-minute, "fully engulfing" fire with an average temperature of 1,475 degrees. According to the National Institute of Standards, the temperature of the tunnel wall surface exceeded 1,500 degrees, with maximum temperatures in the flames of 1,800 degrees.
Earl Easton of the NRC's Spent Fuel Project Office said the report shows there's no need to change current requirements. But Halted urged additional research using a different set of assumptions. Among other things, he said, the testing should look at whether the casks could survive at the hottest temperatures registered in the tunnel fire.
"This controversy is not going to be closed quickly," he said.
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