Public Land For Yucca Mountain Rail

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has set aside public land in a 300-mile corridor across rural Nevada for a railroad line that would transport spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to the proposed underground repository at Yucca Mountain.

In a Dec. 28, 2005, Federal Register notice, BLM issued an order withdrawing 308,600 acres of land in Nevada from sale, surface entry, or mining claims for 10 years. This action will allow the Department of Energy to evaluate the land for the potential construction of a rail line to the Yucca Mountain site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. DOE officials recently doubled the cost estimates for a Nevada railroad to $2 billion.

The land withdrawal will prevent mineral prospectors from filing mining claims along the route, and it also will deter BLM from selling any of the land or allowing other federal agencies to make use of it, according to Dennis J. Samuelson, a real estate specialist in BLM's office in Reno, Nev. Current valid mining claims, grazing rights, water rights, and public access to the land will not be affected, he says.

In a draft study published last August, DOE said its work would mainly consist of photographing topography and conducting land surveys. But Nevada state officials and other opponents of the Yucca project insist that the land withdrawal will have a disruptive impact on ranchers and other land users, and it also has implications for property values and the local economy.

Nevada officials are challenging in federal court DOE's plan to move nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain by rail. A three-judge panel in Washington, D.C., heard oral arguments in the case last October, and a ruling is expected early this year.