SCI/TECH: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: DOE seeks land for rail corridor

The Energy Department has asked permission to reserve use of 308,600 acres of public land across rural Nevada to develop a railroad corridor to the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.



DOE officials filed an application Dec. 19 with the Bureau of Land Management seeking to withdraw a mile-wide swath of federally managed land along more than 300 miles encompassing parts of Lincoln, Esmeralda and Nye counties.

The Energy Department announced last week that the corridor, originating at a Union Pacific Railroad junction near Caliente, 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas, was its preferred choice for a new rail line to haul spent nuclear fuel to the Yucca site.