Tacoma port officials don?t want Seattle’s nuclear cargo

Tacoma port officials donÆt want SeattleÆs nuclear cargo In the shipping business it typically goes that one port's loss is another port's gain.
   Port of Tacoma officials however are not glowing over word that a certain Port of Seattle cargo may be heading their way. Actually, 'glowing' is exactly what Tacoma does not want, after it was revealed that one of its terminals recently received a permit to ship a form of uranium through the port.
   Tacoma fire department officials said that Port of Tacoma tenant Washington United Terminals is pursuing a shipping line, which transports, among other things, uranium hexafluoride — a compound used to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. The shipments, amounting to a handful of containers per year, have been shipped through the Port of Seattle.
   Fire officials said WUT was granted a conditional permit that would allow the terminal operator to handle the radioactive material as long as sufficient safety and transportation plans are developed.
   The U.S. Energy Department has said that under certain circumstances, uranium hexafluoride can be highly toxic.
   WUT, while declining to comment on specific cargoes, said negotiations with the shipping line are ongoing and have not been finalized.
   Port officials, who have a history of opposing the movement of radioactive material through Tacoma port facilities, are hoping to dissuade WUT from any kind of a deal.
   Last month, the port's Executive Director Tim Farrell sent WUT management a letter discouraging the terminal from moving the cargo.
   'Because of the concerns such shipments would likely have in our community, and based on our past actions on similar cargoes, we are writing to discourage you from considering shipping this cargo through the Port of Tacoma,' Farrell wrote.
   The port's commissioners are also not pleased with the possibility of the new cargo.
   'Based on all the information we've gathered on the commodity itself, it seems relatively safe,' Dick Marzano, Tacoma port commission president, told the News Tribune. 'This is in no way as dangerous as [spent nuclear rods], but it will naturally raise radars as far as people looking at that and saying, 'Is it safe?' '
   However, there may be little the port can do other than try to dissuade WUT. According to officials, the port does not have the legal authority to prevent WUT from shipping the material, as long as all federal and state guidelines are followed.