Bechtel-SAIC's Eugene C. Allen to discuss Yucca Mountain rail program at the 2007 Joint Rail Conference (2/15/07) The rail transportation program supporting the radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada will include more than 260 miles of newly constructed track and a fleet of specially equipped high-tonnage cars, according to an engineer at Bechtel-SAIC Company LLC (BSC). The rail transportation program, which could begin operating as early as 2014, also will incorporate a multifaceted safety plan ensuring the protection of human health and the environment, says Eugene C. Allen, the BSC manager of the Nevada Rail Project. BSC is designing the railway for the U.S. Department of Energy. Allen will speak on March 15 at the 2007 ASME/IEEE Joint Rail Conference in Pueblo, Colo. In the presentation, he will report on the progress of the Nevada Rail Project, the DOE-funded national transportation plan that encompasses building a railroad infrastructure where none currently exists, managing logistics, and designing railcars and the metal casks that will hold the radioactive waste material while in transport, among other engineering tasks. Yucca Mountain is the site of a planned underground geologic repository that will store the radioactive spent fuel generated at the nation’s 107 nuclear power plants. The US Congress has approved Yucca Mountain, and at this time DOE awaits a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to begin construction of the facility. The spent nuclear fuel will be collected at the power plants, placed in canisters and a transport cask, and transported along existing freight railways. In the absence of a rail line to Yucca Mountain, Allen’s team has proposed two links to the Union Pacific — one beginning in the city of Hawthorne in western Nevada and running southeast for 230 miles, and a system beginning in Caliente in the eastern part of the state and extending 320 miles west and south to the repository. “We will be building a mainline railroad conforming to the standards of Union Pacific and engineered to last for 50 years,” said Allen. According to DOE estimates, 23 years will be required to transport and deposit all of this country’s spent nuclear fuel, with trains as long as 12 cars in length moving back and forth between Yucca Mountain and the electric utilities. In addition to Eugene Allen’s speech, the 2007 ASME/IEEE Joint Rail Conference will include more than 100 technical papers on new advances in rail engineering. To find out more about the Joint Rail Conference and to register, visit www.asmeconferences.org/JRCICE07. Take the E-Library Web quiz starting Feb. 19 A new Web quiz, beginning this month, will allow you to test your knowledge of ASME's E-Library and enter a drawing for a number of valuable prizes. The ASME E-Library Challenge, which starts Feb. 19 and runs through March 19, will be composed of three to five questions that you can answer by using the resources in the ASME E-library (www.asme.org/Membership/Benefits/Professional/eLibrary.cfm). There are separate versions for members and student members. The member edition of the quiz is available at http://info.knovel.com/ASME/ASME_professional_quiz.htm, and the version for students can be accessed at http://info.knovel.com/ASME/ASME_academic_quiz.htm. Winners will be chosen from entries that have all questions answered correctly. Prizes will include American Express gift cards and ASME membership renewals. To find out more about the E-library — or to sign up and log in, just go to www.asme.org/Membership/Benefits/Professional/eLibrary.cfm. ASME and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers sponsor sustainable engineering Web series ASME and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers are offering five virtual seminars on the subject of sustainable engineering beginning March 15. A virtual seminar is an Internet-based program of information exchange allowing participants to obtain useful technical knowledge in an interactive forum with experts in the field of sustainable development and product life-cycle analysis. The five ASME-AIChE programs will present case studies on the successful application of sustainable engineering practices at leading global firms, including Wal-Mart and Bristol-Meyers Squibb. The first seminar on March 15 is titled "Shaping Your Sustainability Strategy and Moving to Action," and will feature presentations and commentary from Richard E. Feigel, past president of ASME and Calvin Cobb, chair of the AIChE Institute for Sustainability. The seminars to follow are: "Tools for Measuring Sustainability Performance" on March 22, "Sustainability Tools: Applying Life-Cycle Assessment" on March 29, "The Business Case for a Sustainable Enterprise" on April 5, and "Designing to Meet Sustainability Objectives" on April 12. To find out more about the Web series, visit www.asme.org/Education/Courses/Webinars/NEWVirtual_Symposia.cfm.

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