Yucca Mountain Transportation Security Issues: overview and update

This paper examines four aspects of transportation security planning for the proposed geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The authors review the transportation sabotage consequence assessments prepared over the past five years by the United States Department of Energy (DOE), and the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects (NANP). The authors identify five critical uncertainties in the repository transportation system being developed by DOE, and assess the implications of these uncertainties for shipment security. The authors compare the security findings and recommendations of the recent National Academy of Sciences study of high-level nuclear waste transportation, with the State of Nevada petition for rulemaking (PRM 73-10) filed with the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 1999. The authors summarize recent trends in global terrorism and recommend research on alternative assumptions for threat assessments, and recommend that Federal agencies consider social-science based counter-terrorism strategies, such as precursor analysis, and the 'Day After' methodology developed by the Rand Corporation. (authors)