Healthy Communities News

PHILADELPHIA—Trucks and trains each carrying 240 times the radioactive material released at Hiroshima could rumble through Pennsylvania communities if the Senate votes in the next few weeks to allow the Yucca Mountain project to go ahead, according to a report released today by PennEnvironment. Radioactive Roads and Rails: Hauling Nuclear Waste Through our Neighborhoods details the Department of Energy's proposal for more than 105,000 truck shipments of highly radioactive waste from all across the country to Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

In Radioactive Roads and Rails, PennEnvironment shows that Pennsylvania alone could see 21,225 truck shipments or 3,154 rail shipments over the course of 38 years. Shipments of nuclear waste could come down the Pennsylvania Turnpike or the rail line through Harrisburg, Philadelphia or Pittsburgh over the course of four decades. Other waste shipments could be carried by barge over the Delaware River.

"Commuters on the Pennsylvania Turnpike or I-80 could find themselves stuck in traffic behind three and a half tons of nuclear waste," said PennEnvironment director David Masur. "With up to 21,225 truckloads over four decades, this is going to put far too many people in harm's way."

Nuclear waste is recognized as the most dangerous substance known to humankind. When initially removed from the reactor core, it can deliver a lethal dose of radiation within seconds. The Department of Energy (DOE) intends to ship the waste in transportation casks, but size and weight limitations make it impossible to build a transportation cask that does not "leak" some radiation. The DOE acknowledges that a truck carrying a nuclear waste cask will emit the equivalent of one chest x-ray per hour of radiation to those who are caught in traffic nearby.1

"In the best case scenario, these shipments are like rolling x-ray machines," said Masur. "In the worst case scenario, these shipments are mobile Chernobyls."

According to one DOE estimate, there will be as many as 310 accidents in the course of transporting this highly radioactive waste across the country.2 There have been at least eight reported nuclear waste transportation accidents in the U.S. involving radioactive contamination of transport vehicles, roads and rails. Emergency Medical Services officials have stated repeatedly that a severe nuclear waste accident—which could involve thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in property damage—is not something they have the training or equipment to properly respond to. Because of the potential for such horrendous accidents, several studies show that property values will decline for the millions of Americans who will live in the vicinity of the transportation routes.

The DOE currently has no plans to take into account the additional dangers of transporting nuclear waste post-Sept. 11. The Yucca Mountain project involves the movement of nuclear waste from 131 more securable locations, over thousands of miles of roadway and rail lines that cannot be secured from attacks, creating an opportunity for sabotage throughout communities across America.

"At the end of the road, under this ill-conceived plan, the waste will be dumped at Yucca Mountain—a volcano on an aquifer in an earthquake zone," said Masur. "It's time for Sens. Specter and Santorum to say no to this dangerous transportation scheme and to vote against Yucca Mountain."

1 DOE FEIS, Appendix J, p. J-44

2 DOE Draft EIS, Appendix J