MOVING A-WASTE

Does transportation of nuclear waste pose unprecedented dangers? This question is central to a case that is to begin Feb. 14 in the United States Court of Appeals in New York City. The appeal arose from a decision by the Federal District Court in Manhattan to uphold the city's ban on the movement of radioactive waste within municipal limits.

Since highly radioactive materials were first shipped more than 30 years ago, they have not caused a single radiation-related injury or fatality. By comparison, the record in transporting other energyrelated materials is grim. A few examples offer some perspective. On April 6, 1982, in Caldecott Tunnel, Oakland, Calif., a gasoline tanktruck accident created a 2,200-degree fireball that killed seven people. On Nov. 11, 1979, in Mississauga, Ontario, a train carrying liquid fuels and chlorine derailed and burned, pouring toxic fumes into the atmosphere and leading to the largest peacetime evacuation in North American history - 250,000 people. On July 5, 1973, in Kingman, Ariz., 95 people were injured and 12 killed when a petroleum gas tank-truck exploded.

Over the past decade, there have been thousands of accidents and hundreds of deaths associated with the transportation of gasoline and liquid petroleum gas. Natural-gas pipelines typically involve more than 100 explosions and two dozen public fatalities a year. Coalcarrying trains have caused 700 to 1,300 public fatalities a year. Accidents in transporting oil regularly cause injury and death.