Also on April 8,2004, DOE issued a Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Alignment, Construction, and Operation of a Rail Line to a Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, NV (3). In the Notice of Intent, the Department announced its intent to prepare a Rail Alignment EIS to assist in selecting a possible alignment for construction of a rail line that would connect the repository at Yucca Mountain to an existing main rail line in Nevada. The Rail Alignment EIS also would consider the potential construction and operation of a rail-to-truck intermodal transfer facility, proposed to be located at the confluence of an existing mainline railroad and a highway, to support legal-weight truck transportation until the rail system is fully operational. Depending on the alternatives chosen, the route ranges from 512 to 553 kilometers (318 to 344 miles). These alternatives provide flexibility in addressing engineering, land-use or environmental resource issues that could arise in a future, more detailed survey along the corridor. A train would take about 10 hours to travel from the junction with the Union Pacific mainline to the potential Yucca Mountain repository. The ultimate alignment would be approximately 60 meters (200 feet) wide and the overall construction would disturb approximately 18 square kilometers (4500 acres) of land.
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