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[October 9, 2002] -
When you're driving down I-80, do you ever wonder what that unmarked semi truck is hauling down the road? Would you be surprised to learn it might be carrying highly radioactive leftovers from a nuclear power plant? By the end of the decade Nebraskans may be passing a lot more nuclear shipments on our highways and rail lines. Statewide's Bill Kelly has been investigating and found that the controversial nuclear waste site in Nevada will make Nebraska something of a nuclear crossroads for America. |
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Watch the Perspective segment:RealPlayer | QuickTime
The Nuclear Power Institute, an industry supported lobbying group, provides this explanation of how the nuclear fuel shipments will be protected in a video the NPI produced:RealPlayer | QuickTime
Crash tests done on the nuclear fuel shipping casks are documented on this video produced by the Nuclear Power Insitutute:RealPlayer | QuickTime |
In the summer of 2002, a caravan of anti-nuclear power activists visited Omaha and Lincoln to protest the construction of the Yucca Mountain, Nevada nuclear storage facility. This was the statement made at their press conference: RealPlayer | QuickTime
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Transcript of Nuke Transport
[Jana McGuire]
When you're driving down I-80, do you ever wonder what that unmarked semi truck is hauling down the road? Would you be surprised to learn it might be carrying highly radioactive leftovers from a nuclear power plant? By the end of the decade Nebraskans may be passing a lot more nuclear shipments on our highways and rail lines. Statewide's Bill Kelly has been investigating and found that the controversial nuclear waste site in Nevada will make Nebraska something of a nuclear crossroads for America.
[Bill Kelly]Jana, we were surprised to learn that shipments of highly radioactive material have been passing through Nebraska for years. they are infrequent, but they happen often enough that the Nebraska State Patrol considers them no big deal. however when the federal government opens up its new nuclear storage facility in Nevada the number of shipments passing through your town will skyrocket. even the people who believe there are long odds for a disaster told us a number of questions must be answered in the next couple years.
Last summer anti-nuclear activists took to the streets raising concerns about shipping high level nuclear waste on the nation's highways and rail lines.
[John Hadder, Anti-Nuclear Activist]"There will be severe accidents that will happen. This waste will be transported on route 80 and on the railroad that goes through your town."
Highly radioactive material has been crossing the state for years. Nuclear warheads shuttle from Air Force base to silo in military convoys. Also, two nuclear power plants generate electricity in Nebraska. One of them shipped out used up fuel rods years ago. Finally, a few times every year the nuclear materials used by other power plants and research facilities roll down Nebraska highways when moving from point A to point B.
[Major Bryan Tuma, Nebraska State Patrol]
"If you were a citizen and you were told there was there was a shipment moving down the road, aside from the fact that there might be a placard on the side that says nuclear fuel shipment, you probably wouldn't notice it."
Major Bryan Tuma of the Nebraska State Patrol coordinates security for the shipments.
[Major Bryan Tuma]
"So we have been doing it and to this point we really haven't had significant issues attached to the transportation and the security."
In the next decade Nebraska will likely be the crossroads for radioactive shipments. Leftovers from nuclear power plants all over the country are destined for the underground storage facility known a Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The straight-line route of Interstate 80 and the freight rail system here means Nebraska will see more shipments.
[Bill Kelly, on camera]
"And a lot of these shipments will be passing through our neighborhoods. Early estimates say as many as eight out of every ten of the rail shipments will be passing through Nebraska. Six out of every ten of the interstate highway shipments will pass through this state."
Nuclear power plants use the radioactive fuel rods to heat water that makes steam that spins turbines that create electricity. When the fuel rods are no longer useful, the power plants store them in sealed water tanks. It cools them while containing the radioactivity. This supposedly temporary solution lasted years longer than planned. Plants like OPPD's Fort Calhoun Station are running out of room, and they need the fuel transported off site, to Yucca Mountain. On truck or by train, the spent fuel rods will be sealed inside special shipping containers. Here's how one pro-nuclear promotional tape describes it:
  
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"Two thick cylinders of steel surround the basket and form a cavity, which is filled with lead to shield the radiation. A Steel lid then seals this cylinder. The outer most layer is a thick shield material that prevents any release of radiation. The fuel assembly is then inserted into the container and the package is then sealed securely with another steel lid."
The emphasis in their public relations campaign is on safety. Even supporters concede this is dangerous material.
[Gary Gates, VP Nuclear Operations, Omaha Public Power District]
"The main risk of exposure to spent fuel is the radiation from the bundle itself. Since it's been in the reactor for about five years, it's done its thing. It's produced its heat and been part of the fission process. It's become radioactive. And the radiation from that is very high, in the thousands of REM."
[John Hadder, Anti-Nuclear Activist]
"The questions about security, questions about transportation are still just out there. We are not ready to transport this waste, the waste should be left on site where it is."
Anti nuclear activists used their doubts about the safe shipping of the nuclear fuel in an unsuccessful attempt to get Congress to block the Yucca Mountain project. One group traveled the country hauling plywood mock-ups of the shipping containers, raising the alarming prospect of radioactive disasters if a truck or train crashes along a Nebraska route.
[John Hadder]
"I won't argue that there are few accidents that could compromise them, and there is some sturdiness to them. I'm not saying they are not sturdy. However, they have not tested these to destruction, for one thing. We don't know what the upper bound is. We don't know what it takes to create a real breach in an accident scenario with these."
The nuclear industry rejects those claims across the board. To underscore the point, nuclear power advocates released tapes of crash tests.
 
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"Shipping containers have been loaded onto a truck that crashed first at 60 miles and hour, then at 80 miles an hour into a 700 ton concrete wall."
They claim to date none of the crashes would have resulted in a leak of the radioactive cargo.
[Gary Gates]
"The cask designs have been improving. The analysis has been improving. So it is getting better as it goes. That is the basis of my telling you that I have confidence that this is a process that can work and work very well."
When the shadow of terrorism darkened in America, nuclear opponents also raised concerns for the security of the shipments...especially when the numbers multiply to the dozens.
[John Hadder, Anti-Nuclear Activist]
"The experience they have with this kind of shipment plan is zero. They have done some limited cross-country shipments, but were talking about the scale and magnitude is really unprecedented, and the statistics they have on accidents is very limited."
With so much nuclear material is being shipped so often, it will be a staffing issue for the Nebraska State Patrol.
[Major Bryan Tuma, Nebraska State Patrol]
"How are they going to increase this volume and preserve the integrity of the shipment and get it to its final destination.
[Kelly] - You don't want to be stretched too thin.
[BT]
I don't think we could be. I don't think were in a position where we could continue to take on more and more responsibilities without additional resources.
[Kelly]
There's going to be that much coming through.
[BT] - Potentially, yeah."
Major Tuma thinks the Federal government can and should help local law enforcement with funding or extra back up when shipments roll through. Because most of Nebraska's population lives along the Interstate and the rail lines, those same concerns are very much on the minds of those responsible for responding to hazardous materials emergencies.
[Brian Sorensen, Battalion Chief, Omaha Fire Department]
"We have some major concerns here about the amount of people here and the potential for exposures. And so far, we've been left out of the loop. But were still searching."
Out of the loop in information and for funding for equipment, says the Omaha's Deputy Fire Chief responsible for haz-mat incidents. These are the radiation detectors issued to local fire departments by the State of Nebraska.
[Kelly] - Do you have any idea how old these are?[Brian Sorensen]
Well, I was on the fire department and I got hired in 1983, and we had these on every fire truck in 1983, and they look exactly the same and the guys tell me they were around a lot longer than that. They could be 40 years old. Fortunately, they still work. The state maintains them for us. We send them back once a year for calibration. They are a good tool in a back up or an additional tool if we need it.
[Kelly] - "But they are 1960's fallout shelter technology.
[Sorensen] - Exactly.
[Kelly] - So these would be useful under what circumstance?
[Sorensen] - Fallout after a nuclear bomb.
[Kelly] - Pretty limited application.
[Sorensen] - Yes, pretty limited."
So the City of Omaha bought its own radiation detectors.
[Brian Sorensen]"This is what the city of Omaha Fire Department purchased in the spring of this year. It's a Ludlum meter. It's a 2241-2. It's one of the best meters on the market. We purchased it for very specific reasons."
They are for more sensitive; detecting radiation at a distance, so that the HazMat crews don't put themselves at risk and the risk to the public can be detected more accurately. More of an irritant than a crisis, but the Deputy Chief thinks information should be shared a bit more openly between federal officials, state emergency management specialists, and the local responders who will have to deal with any crisis.
[Kelly] - "When a shipment comes through town, are you alerted?
[Sorensen] - No.
[Kelly] - Should you be?
[Sorensen] - I'd like to think that when the first shipments of the high level comes through that we would be alerted and the fire department gets the opportunity to look at the truck, the container and take our meters to it and see what our meters read and verify to us, our crews, the city and even the news media that what they're doing falls in the limits."
The emergency crews that would be the first to respond to a high level radioactive accident have never had the chance to look at the trucks that already pass through Omaha on I-80.
[Kelly]
"When they start talking about these high level shipments, and a lot of them through Nebraska, is your first response 'I am not looking forward to this" or is it 'That's fine, we'll deal with it."
[Sorensen]
That question comes with two answers. I tend to have a lot of faith in the people who design these things, the engineers. If they tell me stand next to these things with their families or drive along side of it on their vacation and or traveling in their city, that's fine with me.
[Kelly] - However...
[Sorensen]
However, I need that verification. I need the container here. I would like my crews to have the training on it."
[Steve Lee, Douglas Co. Emergency Mgt. Coordinator]
"It's not like we are not prepared for these things. We do have a plan. We just are not prepared for an extremely high level one at this point, because we don't know what potentially could happen."
Steve Lee coordinates the Emergency Management Center for Omaha and Douglas County.
[Steve Lee]
"We get the answer that: 'don't worry the government is going to take care of it all.' Well, yeah they will, but what? Two days? Three days? One day? 'Don't worry we'll have a team up from Kansas City in 18 hours.' Is that good enough?"
Training goes on fairly routinely. Simulated hazardous material disasters…including radiation… along rail lines and highways give emergency responders hands on experience. The people who need to ship the fuel, who run Nebraska's nuclear reactors think the state is up to the challenge.
[Gary Gates]
"If you look at the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency they've done a lot to train first responders along the Interstate 80 corridor, for example, and along the rail lines. We need to make sure that continues, because in the event there is an accident, generally they are the first ones there."
All of the emergency response experts in Nebraska we spoke with have considerable faith in the current method of shipping nuclear waste. They also believe...and hope… when the U.S. Department of Energy expands the program that Nebraska will get the training and resources needed for dozens of extra nuclear convoys passing though. It's scheduled to start rolling just ten years from now.
For STATEWIDE, I'm Bill Kelly