According to the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) environmental impact statement, Illinois will be heavily impacted by transportation of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain. In addition to shipments from Illinois reactors, the state would be traversed by shipments from almost all the commercial reactors east of the Mississippi River, plus shipments from DOE facilities in New York and South Carolina.
During the first 24 years of Yucca Mountain's operations, the DOE would make either 8,000 rail and truck shipments or 39,000 truck shipments through Illinois. Over 38 years, the DOE could make either 16,000 rail and truck shipments or more than 69,000 truck shipments, through the state.
