The question of when and where to build a permanent repository for storing high-level nuclear waste has created considerable interest in assessing the impacts associated with transporting these wastes from their generation site to the repository. Inherent issues are addressed for design of a comprehensive transportation impact analysis system and for the practical aspects of implementing the system in support of policy analysis. The focus of discussion is the current development of a Transportation Management Information and Analysis System (TMIAS) for the state of Nevada. Issues related to methodological approach, impact definition, system analysis capability, data requirements, transportation policy alternatives, system interaction, and development schedule are described. Because of the complex nature of high-level nuclear waste shipments, the discussion provided should be transferable to analyses of other hazardous materials shipments and more traditional transportation applications because these scenarios are likely to focus on a subset of the issues presented.
Abstract