Mobile Chernobyl?
MapScience.org Tracks Nuclear Waste Through Everytown, USA
Are you ready for radioactive waste to roll through your home town?
Congress and the White House may soon approve opening a dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, where the nuclear power industry hopes to bury its little problem -- 77,000 tons of radioactive waste. It's supposed to be a safe long-term repository, a matter subject to hot debate. Meanwhile, the waste is stored where it's created -- at 131 sites in 39 states.
If Yucca Mountain opens in 2010, as scheduled, all that waste must travel American highways or railroads to get there -- some 100,000 shipments over three decades through thousands of American communities. The potential for a serious accident or terrorist hijacking has opponents to the transport plan calling it "Mobile Chernobyl."
One in seven Americans -- 38 million people -- live within one mile of a proposed route, according to an analysis by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The study shows 14,500 schools are within the one-mile zone, as are the White House and the U.S. Capitol.
How close are YOU to a proposed route? EWG has a Web site -- www.MapScience.org -- that will show you. Just enter your address and ZIP code and see how close you are.
How secure will these shipments be? The nuclear industry and the U.S. Department of Energy say we shouldn't worry. But DOE's Transportation Security Division, which moves nuclear weapons and radioactive materials on public highways, failed six out of seven security tests in 1998, according to the Project On Government Oversight (www.POGO.org).
No wonder the U.S. Conference of Mayors, on June 17, asked Congress to ban nuclear waste shipments to Yucca Mountain until communities along the way get "adequate funds, training and equipment to protect public health and safety in the event of an accident."
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