Emergency workers in three northern Utah counties have been preparing for the day in 1994 when test shipments of low-level radioactive waste will begin passing through the state.
The shipments will originate at either the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory near Idaho Falls or a storage site at Hanford, Wash. They will enter Utah on I-15 at the Idaho border, swing east on I-84 at Riverdale and head up Morgan Canyon to Echo Junction before moving into Wyoming via I-80.The shipments' final destination will be the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.
The WIPP project has been a source of ongoing controversy in New Mexico, where environmentalists have joined with residents and community groups in opposing the long-term storage facility, which already has been built 2,100 feet underground.
Federal energy officials have said the 25-year project will take a small number of test shipments during the first five years to evaluate whether long-term "deep geological storage" is safe and environmentally sound.
One to two shipments a week will pass through northern Utah during the five-year evaluation period.
To prepare local emergency workers for the possibility of accidents involving radioactive waste, officials from the state Division of Radiation Control and federal Department of Energy began training sessions in Weber and Box Elder counties two years ago.
Morgan County emergency workers will begin training this month. Their first rehearsal drill is scheduled for Sept. 21, followed by a full-scale exercise Oct. 14 that will simulate an accidental spill near I-84.
Bill Craig of the state radiation control division said the waste to be shipped consists primarily of laboratory materials such as rags, glassware, metal tools, gloves and clothing that have been contaminated by exposure to plutonium and other radioactive materials.
Trucks equipped with stainless steel containers will carry the waste.
Craig said low-level radioactive waste is not immediately dangerous because it emits alpha waves, which cannot penetrate even a layer of dead skin.
However, the waste is harmful if ingested, and long-term exposure is carcinogenic, he said.
A fact sheet provided by the radiation control division indicates that hundreds of trucks loaded with radioactive materials travel through Utah each year without incident.