Nuclear Waste Transportation and Railroad Accidents

Background

In 1982 when the Nuclear Waste Policy Act was passed, Yucca Mountain was destined to become the final storage site for high-level nuclear waste that was piling up at nuclear reactor sites across the United States. By 1998, Yucca Mountain was supposed to begin accepting tens of thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in deep geological tunnels. The Nuclear Waste Fund was created to fund the permanent repository and utilities that owned the nuclear reactor plants were to make regular payments into the Nuclear Waste Fund. In return, the Department of Energy (DOE) would use that money for a place like Yucca Mountain to be operated and maintained. But 1998 came and passed and no nuclear waste was ever sent to Yucca Mountain. In 2014 the utilities sued the DOE because it was not upholding its end of the bargain. Payments were halted to the Nuclear Waste Fund. It's 2021 now and Yucca Mountain is as good as shut down. So what was the DOE and nuclear reactor sites supposed to do with their high-level nuclear waste as the years went by? 

The 2012 Blue Ribbon Commission that was in charge of creating a strategy for nuclear waste disposal and storage in the United States. One facet of their strategy was to declare that private companies could store the nuclear waste at interim storage sites.

That's when Interim Storage Partners and Holtec International stepped in. One major issue: getting the SNF to those sites in far West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico. 

Nuclear Waste Transportation

Transporting nuclear waste requires specialized containers that can shield the public and employees from radioactivity. These containers are called transportation casks and in the United States, those metal casks are only 5-9 inches in thickness. There are different cask types for different purposes, but they have similar overall design to maximize the containment of radioactivity. (nuclearconnect.org). All shipments of radioactive material must be packaged and transported according to strict federal regulations (epa.gov).

While the casks are tested for a variety of circumstances like fire and impact, the 2019 U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board report stated that the exact transportation routes and exact destination for the high-level nuclear waste was not taken into consideration in their studies. 

As much as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other government agencies like to state that transporting high-level nuclear waste has never been an issue, the same 2019 report also confirms that this proposed scale of transporting tons of SNF across the country has never attempted. Nuclear waste is often transported between the reactor and the on site storage, but not to off-site storage on a large scale. If you look at maps of nuclear reactor sites and their on site storage, aka ISFSI, they are close by and within a reasonable distance from each other. 

The Interim Storage Partners and Holtec International Sites are nowhere close to current nuclear reactor sites. 

Spent nuclear fuel emits high levels of heat and radiation. It is first stored in cooling water pools near the nuclear reactor sites until the initial heat levels decrease. Typically, used fuel is stored onsite for at least five months before it can be transported in transport casks. Used fuel from a nuclear power reactor contains 96% uranium, 3% fission products, and 1% plutonium as well as a small amount of other transuranics. (world-nuclear.org)

Packaging of Materials

For radioactive materials, special shipment packaging is required. It depends on the type of radioactive material that is being shipped. If you are waiting at a railroad crossing in your vehicle, you'll be able to see markings on shipment containers letting you know high-level nuclear waste is inside. The sign also indicates how radioactive the material is (epa.gov).

Case Study: Dallas/Fort Worth Transportation Corridor

When you look at a map of nuclear reactors, most are on the East Coast. If we study a map of railway routes through Texas, the high-level nuclear waste will go through major cities like Dallas and Fort Worth. The Union Pacific rail tracks run straight through Tarrant County, home to some 2 million people with the largest city in the county, Fort Worth. 

According to the NRC, "The exposed population is in a band 770 meters (approximately 0.5 miles) on either side of the route: from 30 meters (100 feet) from the center of the route to 800 meters (0.5 miles)." and  "Suburban residents sustain the largest dose for all routes and shipment modes." 

If and when these shipments of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, up to 200 shipments a year to Texas and New Mexico, are sent through urban, suburban, and rural areas, residents along the transportation route will be exposed to radiation time and again. Your family will be exposed to radiation if you pass one of these nuclear waste canisters being carried on the highway. When a truck carrying this radioactive waste stops at a truck stop, workers and families gassing up their vehicles will be exposed to radiation. This is an undisputed fact. 

In Tarrant County, the approximate .5 mile band of exposure from the railway includes parts of downtown Fort Worth, 19 public and private schools, two universities, Arlington, Benbrook, and Pantego. The railway intersects many residential streets which unfortunately offers chances of train and vehicle accidents. 

Near the bustling downtown of Fort Worth is Davidson Yard next to the Trinity River. The area is a busy recreation area with bike and walking paths, not to mention residential buildings and businesses. 

Rail Accidents

In 2020, there were 1,948 train accidents in the United States according to the Department of Transportation. There are many reasons why train and vehicle accidents, known as highway-rail incidents by the Federal Railroad Administration, occur. Human error, reckless drivers and pedestrians, speedy trains and speeding vehicles, collisions between trains, train derailment, stalled cars on the tracks, suicides, and mechanical failures. From 2001 through 2005, the great majority of train accidents resulted from human factor causes or track causes  . As much as the federal government installs more adequate warning devices and better technology, human error cannot be controlled.

Transporting high level nuclear waste over thousands of miles, 200 times a year, only places communities along the railroad tracks at risk. It places the railroad employees at risk. It places the natural habitats that parallel the railroad tracks. 

In addition to moving this spent nuclear fuel once to West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico, the high-level nuclear waste would eventually be moved a second time to the permanent repository (that doesn't exist yet). The NRC, ISP, and Holtec Int. are endangering the American public twice over with their plan. 

In June 2020, a train transporting a nuclear waste cask caught fire in the Chicago area. Thank goodness it was low-level waste and not SNF. Fortunately no radioactive release was reported. Again, the NRC argues that transporting high-level nuclear waste is safe, yet the scale of this interim storage plan has never been operated before. Moving SNF from nuclear reactor to on-site storage on a regular basis is far different than transporting high-level nuclear waste through major cities with high volumes of residents and rural communities with few emergency responders.

Conclusion

Railroad accidents happen. They mostly involve human error and cannot be controlled. The routes that high-level nuclear waste will travel through go through cosmopolitan areas, rural areas, and through invaluable natural resource areas. This is an issue that affects all United States citizens, not just those in West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico where the spent nuclear fuel is to be stored.