Public Safety Impact Assessments
This report details the second quadrennial review of public safety fiscal cost projections for Clark County NV and local government public safety agencies arising from potential impacts of transporting high-level nuclear waste (HLW) through Clark County to the Yucca Mountain repository. The initial study was conducted at the direction of the Clark County, Nevada Board of Commissioners in 2001, and was updated in 2005. Projected fiscal costs reported in these studies reflect only the additional costs that are a direct result of the repository and the shipping campaign. The fiscal costs of these unfunded public safety mandates emanating from the transportation of high-level nuclear waste to public safety agencies, Clark County, and the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, and Mesquite, are provided within the report. The public safety agencies that are charged with protecting the health, safety and welfare of citizens in the event of an emergency include fire, police and emergency management. This study employed consistent modeling among all jurisdictions, and the implementation of twenty-four (24) year projection models that include maintenance, life cycle or useable life projections for equipment, inflation and other recurring costs. These costs are projected over the entire U.S. Department of Energy’s estimated 24-year span of the transportation campaign. Hence, cost projections are provided for both the startup in 2017, as well as the entire transportation campaign. This report, by providing cost estimates to governmental entities that span the total shipping campaign, permits decision makers to view the projected cumulative total cost and fiscal impacts to public safety agencies.