What are the national transportation routes?
Major transportation routes have not been formally identified by the DOE. The Energy Department says rail route consideration would involve the distance to be traveled, the number of interchanges between railroads, and operational input from carriers. For the highway shipments, special Department of Transportation (DOT) guidelines dictate that waste would travel on Interstate highways, beltways, or bypasses. State and tribal routing agencies, following DOT regulations, may designate alternate highway routes through their jurisdictions. Shipment routes will be surveyed and approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Currently there are no rail routing regulations such as there are for highway routing of radioactive waste, and none are anticipated, according to Nevada transportation expert Robert Halstead. Rail rights-of-way are privately owned and restrict the regulatory abilities of state, tribal, and local governments. As a result, units of government below the federal level
