Watch: Atlas Cleared for Operation

Atlas (pictured) is a 12-axle U.S. Department of Energy-designed railcar for transporting shipments of spent nuclear fuel weighing up to 480,000 pounds (240 tons). The $33 million project took 10 years to complete. (DOE Photograph)

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) Equipment Engineering Committee (EEC) has certified the Atlas railcar system to run on all major U.S. freight railroads, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy, which developed it to transport the nation’s commercial spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste weighing up to 480,000 pounds (240 tons).

It took 10 years and approximately $33 million to complete the system, which includes Atlas, a 12-axle railcar equipped with sensors and monitoring systems; two buffer railcars; and a rail escort vehicle that was developed in partnership with the Navel Nuclear Propulsion Program, DOE reported June 4.

Final testing of the Atlas railcar system wrapped up last September following the completion of a 1,680-mile round-trip journey from Pueblo, Colo., to Scoville, Idaho, that used two Union Pacific locomotives. The system was to be officially unveiled this month at BNSF’s 31st Street Yard in Denver, Colo., during DOE’s 2024 National Transportation Stakeholders Forum Annual Meeting.

DOE said the system is its first to meet the testing requirements of AAR’s S-2043 standard for transporting high-level radioactive material.

In a May 28, 2024, letter accepting the performance of the Atlas railcar system (download below), AAR’s EEC said it “conditionally approves the Atlas Consist (the Atlas Car, the Buffer Car, and the Rail Escort Vehicle designs) to enter restricted interchange service for the transport of High Level Radioactive Material.” Full approval, the Committee noted, “may be requested once representative cars have accumulated 100,000 miles of service and are satisfactorily retested per the requirements of Standard S-2043.”

“The certification of the Atlas railcar by the AAR is a significant step forward as we develop the infrastructure to safely manage and store the nation’s nuclear waste,” said Paul Murray, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and High-Level Waste Disposition. “The capability for DOE to safely and securely transport spent nuclear fuel is a key component of DOE’s vision for an integrated waste management system that includes transportation, and government-owned storage and permanent disposal identified through a consent-based siting process.”

Atlas is one of two railcars DOE said it is developing “to provide flexibility in transporting spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to future federal interim storage facilities and disposal sites.” Fabrication is under way for the eight-axle Fortis, which will handle lighter-weight loads once in operation. The railcar is expected to begin single-car testing in 2025 at the earliest, and could be operational before the end of the decade, according to DOE.

Subject to appropriations, DOE said it is moving forward on a government-owned consolidated interim storage facility project that includes rail transportation. “DOE intends to eventually transport more than 140,000 metric tons of commercial spent nuclear fuel that is estimated to be generated in the United States by 2060,” the Department reported. “The location of the storage facility would be selected through DOE’s consent-based siting process that puts communities at the forefront and would ultimately reduce the number of locations where commercial spent nuclear fuel is stored in the United States. Construction and operation of a federal consolidated interim storage facility will require amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to move those phases of the project forward.”

DOE plans to use Atlas and other railcars to support emergency responder training and informational roadshows prior to commencing shipments of spent nuclear fuel to a federal consolidated interim storage facility.