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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Nuclear Train 'Coming-Hope There Isn't A Fire |
Current rating: 0 |
by Kevin Kamps
(No verified email address) |
15 Aug 2001
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Despite assertions that there should be no public concern about the nuclear waste train that will be passing through our area soon on the Norfolk Southern RR-the trains meet DOE standards, right?-it seems these standards may be seriously out-of-date. They are over a half-century old and modern catastrophes may create conditions that could cause a release of highly radioactive materials in an accident involving these trains. |
A train tunnel fire in Baltimore exposes the dangers of nuclear waste transportation.
July 26, 2001
By Kevin Kamps
Baltimore -- Here's a scary thought: What if the train that burned up in a recent Baltimore rail tunnel fire had been carrying nuclear waste?
It's not that far-fetched. According to Energy Department maps that trace national railroad routes for the transport of nuclear waste to a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, a train, carrying spent fuel rods from a nuclear power plant near Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, could pass right through the same tunnel.
If a train carrying atomic waste were to catch fire, the only thing standing between people and deadly radiation would be the nuclear waste transport casks, which could leak in a severe accident, releasing radiation. Spent nuclear fuel, even decades after removal from the reactor, could deliver a lethal dose of radiation in just a few minutes time.
The July 18 inferno in Baltimore's Howard Street train tunnel reportedly reached temperatures as high as 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The blaze, apparently fed by flammable chemicals in the train cargo, burned out of control all day long, overnight, and well into the next day.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission calls for high-level nuclear waste containers to be able to withstand a 1,475 degree fire for 30 minutes. Clearly, this real life accident in Baltimore burned longer and hotter than anything envisioned by the NRC.
These outdated criteria date back to 1947 and haven't been updated since, despite combustibles on the roads and rails today that burn at much higher temperatures. That needs to change.
By any reckoning, the damage from a tunnel fire involving nuclear waste could be enormous. According to experts like Marvin Resnikoff, a nuclear physicist with Radioactive Waste Management Associates in New York City, a severe high-level radioactive waste transport accident releasing radiation in an urban area could cause scores of latent cancer fatalities and cost tens of billions of dollars to clean up. Resnikoff used the DOE's own computer models to arrive at these figures.
The Baltimore Sun quoted a firefighter as saying all he could see inside the tunnel was the glowing metal of train tanker cars. He described it as "a deep orange, like a horseshoe just pulled out of the oven."
The big question is, could high-level atomic waste containers survive such severe accident conditions? If not, we could be looking at our own Chernobyl catastrophe -- on wheels.
Kevin Kamps is nuclear waste specialist with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington, DC. (Copyright 2001, Global Beat Syndicate, 418 Lafayette Street, Suite 554, New York, NY 10003 http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate).
© 2001 New York University. All Rights Reserved. The Global Beat Syndicate, a service of New York University's Center for War, Peace, and the News Media, provides editors with commentary and perspective articles on critical global issues from contributors around the world. For more information, check out http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate/ |
See also:
http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate/kamps072601.html
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Comment In Article Intro... |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Aug 2001
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Should refer to the trains meeting NRC (US Nuclear Regulatory Commission) standards instead of "DOE standards".
My bad. |
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How Champaign County Was Chosen As A Route |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
17 Aug 2001
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Are you wondering how Champaign County was chosen as a route for the train of highly radioactive nuclear waste? Because of the low population. That's right, there are few enough of us here that this is the best place to send the nuclear waste train through. Just in case anything should go wrong. Not that it will. We can trust the government, right?
There's a link to the map of the route, along with the reasoning behind the choice of route, at the bottom.
Try this llink for a rather interesting story in the dominant media about the politics behind this particular shipment.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/603339.asp?cp1=1
If we are going to have a massive expansion of nuclear power, like the Bush Administration wants, we are going to have to have a massive expansion of nuclear waste shipments. Since Champaign County is the path of least resistance for these people, we either have to get used to this stuff coming through on a regular basis or we have to stop the shipments through our backyardsby opposing this plan.
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See also:
http://www.wvnsco.com/Fuel_Ship_Route.htm
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A Discussion of the Nuke Shipping Standards |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
17 Aug 2001
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Plenty of info here, including confirmation that "NRC's fire test has been criticized for specifying a flame temperature below that of many motor fuel fires. For example, a gasoline tanker fire can reach 1,900 degrees F." |
See also:
http://www.cnie.org/nle/eng-34.html#Potential Accident Consequences
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The Opposition Speaks |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
17 Aug 2001
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Kevin Kamps is affliated with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service which has a very informative website.
http://www.nirs.org/
For more on his recently concluded tour of the Midwest go to this link: |
See also:
http://www.nirs.org/roadsrails/roadsrailshome.htm
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