Nuclear transport risks at the "front end" of the uranium fuel chain

While the nuclear materials at the "front end" of the uranium fuel chain are not radioactive wastes per se, they still involve risks -- both toxic chemical, as well as radiological -- during their transport. The WISE Uranium Project (World Information Service on Energy) has documented general uranium transport accidents, as well as transport risks and accidents specifically involving uranium hexafluoride. Miles Goldstick wrote a book in 1991 entitled The Hex Connection: Some Problems and Hazards Associated with the Transportation of Uranium Hexafluoride.

TransCanada Pipelines also a large-scale radioactive waste generator!

Bruce nuclear power plant, part owned by TransCanada PipelinesCongratulations to environmental allies who have successfully pressured the Obama administration to postpone -- and hopefully ultimately cancel -- TransCanada Pipelines' proposed Keystone XL Pipeline for Canadian tar sands crude oil. But tar sands crude oil isn't the only "dirty, dangerous, and expensive" energy source TransCanada dabbles with. According to its website, it also owns 48.8% of the 3,000 Megawatt-electric (MW-e) Bruce A nuclear power plant, and 31.6% of the 3,200 MW-e Bruce B nuclear power plant. Bruce -- a 9 reactor and radioactive waste complex located in Ontario on the shore of Lake Huron just 50 miles from Michigan -- is the largest nuclear power plant in the Western Hemisphere, and the second biggest in the world. TransCanada entered the nuclear power business despite warnings by NIRS in late 2002 about serious financial and environmental risks.

A primary bone of contention over the Keystone XL pipeline is its proposed route over the irreplacable Ogallala Aquifer; the Waste Control Specialists radioactive waste dump in Texas also threatens the Ogallala. For its part, TransCanada's Bruce nuclear complex already comprises one of the biggest concentrations of radioactive waste in the world, embroiled in a raging controversy over proposed radioactive waste shipments on the Great Lakes (a total of 64 radioactively contaminated steam generators), and targeted to become a permanent burial dump for "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes from a whopping 20 reactors across Ontario -- the "Deep Underground Dump," or DUD, as Greenpeace Canada's Dave Martin dubbed it. The DUD would be located just a half mile from the Lake Huron shoreline. The Great Lakes provide drinking water for 40 million people in the U.S., Canada, and numerous Native American First Nations.

Ten years ago today...

...Counterpunch quoted Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps (then working at Nuclear Information and Resource Service) concerning a train tunnel fire beneath downtown Baltimore -- on a route targeted for high-level radioactive waste shipments. The risks of "Mobile Chernobyls" caused by severe accidents, or "dirty bombs on wheels" caused by terrorist attacks, are rearing their ugly heads again in 2011, as President Obama's and Energy Secretary Chu's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future moves to advocate "centralized interim storage" (parking lot dumps) for high-level radioactive wastes. If carried out, this would lead to unprecedented thousands of shipments of high-level radioactive waste on the roads, rails, and waterways. It would represent a very risky radioactive waste shell game for no good reason, as the containers would have to be moved someday all over again -- this time to a permanent disposal site, perhaps back in the same direction from which they came.

EU policy of "deep geologic disposal" still contains loophole for shipments to foreign countries for reprocessing

Reuters has reported that the European Union has set a deadline of 2015 for its 14 member states with nuclear power industries -- comprising a total of 143 atomic reactors -- to come up with plans for "deep geologic disposal" sites for burial of their high-level radioactive wastes. However, the EU admits it will take as long as 40 years to construct those repositories. Deutsche Welle also reported on this story, including on the loophole in the new EU directive that will still allow high-level radioactive waste shipments to foreign countries for reprocessing, so long as those countries also have deep geologic repositories.

Blue Ribbon Commission would play radioactive waste shell game on the roads, rails, and waterways

While the court ruling on July 1st against the Yucca dump is a major environmental justice victory for the Western Shoshone Indian Nation, President Obama's Blue Ribbon Commission for America's Nuclear Future is advocating "centralized interim storage" for commercial high-level radioactive waste, which could easily lead to a revival of reprocessing in the U.S. The Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah, DOE's Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and the Dresden nuclear power plant and adjacent General Electric reprocessing facility in Morris, Illinois, are at the top of the list for consolidation of high-level radioactive wastes for "interim storage" and/or plutonium extraction. But any "away-from-reactor" scheme would launch an unprecedented number of high-level radioactive waste trucks, trains, and barges onto our nation's roads, rails, and waterways. In terms of accident potential, these would be "Mobile Chernobyls." In terms of attack potential, they would be "dirty bombs on wheels," or "floating radiological dispersal devices." In any event, it would represent a radioactive waste shell game through major metro centers and other sensitive areas, for the wastes would have to be moved all over again, to a permanent dumpsite someday, supposedly.