Close to home?

June 15, 2002 2:35 AM

Close to home? Worried about transport of nuclear waste? Find out how close to your home it'll pass with this handy map. In my case, it'll be transported on train tracks that I can see and hear from my bedroom...
posted by delmoi (24 comments total)

Well, I can hear trains when they are on the tracks, that is.

Its really close. about 60-70 meters. I can hear it right now.
posted by delmoi at 2:39 AM on June 15, 2002

And the Bush administration is worried about a "dirty bomb" how?
posted by crasspastor at 3:10 AM on June 15, 2002

You mean those same trains that daily carry acids and other chemicals that are far more toxic and far less protected from destroying the local environment in the event of a train wreck than radioactive waste would be?
posted by mischief at 3:48 AM on June 15, 2002

Nuclear Waste Transportation Risks
posted by stbalbach at 3:49 AM on June 15, 2002

mischief - A person standing one yard away from an unshielded, 10-year-old fuel assembly would receive a lethal dose of radiation(500 rem) in less than three minutes and would be sufficient to contaminate Lake Mead (23 trillion gallons) beyond permissible drinking water standards and cleanup costs could exceed half a billion dollars and possibly be uninhabitable forever. According to the above study about 175 to 355 accidents and 425 to 925 reportable regulatory incidents would be expected over 30-40 years.
posted by stbalbach at 4:01 AM on June 15, 2002

So, what? We should just leave it at the plants where it is produced, forever?
posted by benh57 at 4:10 AM on June 15, 2002

according to the map, I live about .2 miles from a waste route and 12 miles from a Nuclear waste source.
posted by mkelley at 5:06 AM on June 15, 2002

Then I looked at the actual DOE maps for Tennessee and it appears that every facility will be hauling waste through Chattanooga, where I live. We have a major railroad hub here (about .3 of a mile from where I work) and one of the busiest interstates I-75 and I-24 merge so that I-75 can run to Atlanta and Florida.

Lets see them talk about that on the tourist maps. Oh we have crappy schools, high taxes, in the heart of the bible belt...and I get Nuclear waste? Where the hell do I sign up?
posted by mkelley at 5:11 AM on June 15, 2002

Security Breach on Nuclear Waste Train
Inmates Jump Wrong Train, Revealing Vulnerability of CP&L Shipments
posted by Dean King at 7:03 AM on June 15, 2002

So, what? We should just leave it at the plants where it is produced, forever?

There will be practical technological solutions to this problem within 50 years (France is already reprocessing waste after a fashion). The whole concept of a sealed repository is flawed. Most of the employees at the Site will admit that to you, but no one wants to make waves and risk derailing the political (i.e. money) process. Besides, they all have jobs there to protect.
posted by rushmc at 7:36 AM on June 15, 2002

Oh great, I am 5.4 miles from the nearest route.
posted by sahrens428 at 8:26 AM on June 15, 2002

Oh no! Atomic Train! Better call in the Blast Corps.
posted by ljromanoff at 8:30 AM on June 15, 2002

Why?
posted by groundhog at 8:50 AM on June 15, 2002

Oops. Disregard that 'why'.
posted by groundhog at 8:52 AM on June 15, 2002

So, what? We should just leave it at the plants where it is produced, forever?

No, we should shut down the plants and move the spent fuel once and discontinue this folly with nuclear fuel. An accident is inevitable.
posted by MaddCutty at 9:25 AM on June 15, 2002

i saw this map yesterday (i am approx 2 mi from i-40) and promptly had a bad dream about it last night. we really need something like a kitten transport map.
posted by sugarfish at 9:39 AM on June 15, 2002

Previous accidents did not release radioactive material.

Since 1960, trains and trucks carrying a total of 5 million pounds of spent nuclear fuel have traveled 1.6 million miles and had eight accidents, none of which released any radioactive material.

Transport of radioactive materials already happens; Sweden and France centralize their waste storage, and Japan and Europe have exchanged radioactive wastes by ship. The industry-standard "Type B" cask is visible at that link.

Say, guess how nuclear power plants get their radioactive fuel? I know! It's magic!
posted by dhartung at 10:08 AM on June 15, 2002

cool, i'm just (barely) outside the red zone, which means pretty much exactly 1 mile from the proposed route. but then, living as i do right next to the oh-so-convenient confluence of several big-ass freeways and a railroad line (can you say, "fiber optics?"), i suppose there are some things i have to accept.

i mean, roads and train tracks get built where people need them -- ie, where they live and work. should it come as a shock that when we're moving something over those roads and highways, the stuff we're moving comes close to lots of people?

we could always fly the stuff, i suppose...
posted by hob at 10:19 AM on June 15, 2002

A post from the not-too-distant future: Oh no, kittens are being transported 3 yards from my house! I can't stand the cursed meows.
posted by jaden at 3:49 PM on June 15, 2002

The site itself (Environmental Working Group, Washington DC) is just 2.1 miles from the nearest transport route. Using their example address (1600 Pennsylvania Ave), the White House is closer; 1.1 miles.
posted by G_Ask at 5:29 PM on June 15, 2002

I'm way close - my house is across a park from a train track that the stuff travels along. It says I'm .1 mile away. The US Capitol (around the corner from me), is .2 miles away.
posted by GriffX at 7:41 PM on June 15, 2002

Kinda off topic, but an acquaitance of mine the other day asserted that there are no more NIMBYs (Not In My BackYard) - they are now all BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything). Whatever, but I thought it was clever.
posted by GriffX at 7:44 PM on June 15, 2002

I am 4 miles from a route and 24 miles from a source. I didn't know there was a source that close.
posted by SisterHavana at 9:30 PM on June 15, 2002

So, what? We should just leave it at the plants where it is produced, forever?

Nevada Sen. John Ensign: "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has stated that fuel can be stored safely on site for at least 100 years in dry-cask storage. That leaves plenty of time to continue to develop new technologies to reprocess the waste without producing weapons-grade plutonium as a byproduct."

Nuclear power is a ridiculously socialist system for harvesting energy that couldn't exist without massive taxpayer support. It's the only industry whose solution to its trash problem is "The government promised they'd take care of it."

And have you read the General Accounting Office's report of the flawed science behind the DOE's decision to use Yucca Mountain? (pdf) Give it a try; it's quite an eye-opener.
posted by mediareport at 10:25 AM on June 16, 2002