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CLIVE, Tooele County — A massive nuclear waste shipment will arrive Tuesday in Utah after a two-week journey from Southern California that began Nov. 5.
The 398-ton piece of steam generator is the third of four shipments being made to the Energy Solutions facility in Clive from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in Southern California. Officials at the plant said the generators were simply "due to be replaced" and, while slightly radioactive, pose little threat to health.
"If you stood next to it for an hour, you'd see about the same amount of radiation as you would in a dental X-ray," said San Onofre's Scott Andresen.
Mark Walker with Energy Solutions said the generators pose no threat to Tooele County residents. The material is class A — the lowest classification available for radioactive materials — and falls below the threshold level for disposal at the facility.
"Safety is our first priority," Walker said. "There is nothing from a radioactivity point of view that the citizens of Utah need to be concerned about."
The massive generator, moving at speeds between 5 and 15 mph, passed through Southern California overnight to avoid disrupting traffic, according to Andresen, and the journey was made during the day in Nevada. The trip required a specially built 400-foot trailer with 192 wheels to help evenly distribute the generator's weight.
"It's been an interesting process," Andresen said. "It's a challenge sometimes to find a place that can handle something this big."
He said the crew learned lessons from the previous two moves that made the the third move easier. The fourth generator will be in Utah by the end of the year, he said.
Steam generators are used to drive turbines that create electricity at nuclear plants. Each of the San Onofre generators is 65 feet high and 22 feet wide. They have been out of use since 2009 and 2010, but the first shipment did not arrive in Utah until summer 2011.
