ABOUT
Smart discussion of the latest science and news on toxins in your food, water, and air, and what government agencies should be doing to protect public health. Written by EWG staff.
DONATE TO EWG!
Help us protect your health and environment! Please donate $5 to EWG today.
GET EWG'S TIPS & ACTION ALERTS
Sign Up here to receive email updates and tips from EWG and stay informed on the issues that matter most to you.
ENVIROBLOG VIA EMAIL
Join EWG's live chat with Chef Ann Cooper
School lunch: More fruits & veggies, please!
Texas Schools are Drilling for Dollars
Why do blowouts take so long to fix?
SEARCH ENVIROBLOG
FEATURED
Support the 2010 Safe Cosmetics Act. It's Urgent.
Why, oh why is there plastic in my aluminum water bottle?
Cell phone radiation series - Part 2: 8 Ways to reduce your exposure
Test Your Knowledge of Cosmetics Safety: 8 Myths Debunked
EWG's Tips for Parents: The Series
EWG's Tips to avoid BPA exposure
EWG on TV
Cutting the Pork from U.S. Farm Bill
Sunscreen safety & DC drinking water
Perchlorate in people, kids' personal care products & plastics, and sunscreen
BPA in baby formula & safe cosmetics
What can I do about fluoride in my water?
What is new carpet treated with? What can I do?
Are stainless steel water bottles safe?
Is mineral-based makeup safer?
PEOPLE TALKING TOXICS
TALK TO US
Did we miss something? Email Enviroblog.
« How green is Arnold? [UPDATED] | Main | Are Californians more flame retardant than the rest of us?? »
Gambling with lethal cargo
Sandra Schubert is the Environmental Working Group's Director of Government Affairs
There were 1,203 train accidents in the first six months of 2008, and 13 of them resulted in the release of hazardous materials.
Yet when the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation met last week to hear testimony about the safety and security of spent nuclear fuel, witnesses from the U.S. Energy and Transportation departments expressed no fear that transportation mishaps might result in the release of radioactivity into neighborhoods.
There’s no dispute about the fact that if the federal government proceeds with its plan to bury nuclear power plant wastes at the proposed Yucca Mountain dump in Nevada, thousands of tons of extremely hazardous nuclear wastes will be shipped through American communities.
But DOE and DOT witnesses never mentioned that this dangerous cargo will pass within miles of thousands of neighborhoods, schools and hospitals as it winds its way along our aged railroad tracks and choked highways. Nor did they mention the number of deaths that would occur from even a moderate accident. They also ignored the dozens of nuclear waste accidents that have already occurred. Fortunately, as far as we know, those incidents occurred without disaster. But next time, with an estimated 27 times more waste being hauled around the countryside, we may not be so lucky.
And, of course, they never mentioned people's right to know the implications of transporting this waste in sight of their homes and the places where their children study and play.
It was the Environmental Working Group that raised that issue. We gave the committee maps of the DOE’s planned nuclear waste transportation routes through communities. Plus our estimates of the risks of accidents. Plus our calculations of the volumes of waste being produced today by nuclear power plants and projections of future production. Plus detailed data on nuclear waste shipping accidents.
All this data has led us to conclude that the Yucca Mountain depository and the government's plan to ship radioactive waste around the country should not go forward.
During the hearing, I introduced a statement in which EWG President Ken Cook described some of the risks to people living in Texas, a major transit route for radioactive waste being transported to Yucca Mountain.
An EWG analysis of little-known DOE documents shows that planned routes for shipping radioactive waste across Texas lie within a mile of 599 schools, 76 hospitals and the homes of 2,336,290 people. If a train loaded with casks of radioactive cesium crashed while transiting Houston, according to Cook, even if the casks remained largely intact, enough radioactivity would escape from small cracks to expose tens of thousands of people to dangerous levels of radiation.
“In less than 10 minutes, contamination plumes ranging from 300 to 750 chest x-rays would extend up to 1 mile from the wreck,” Cook said. “Closer in, people would be exposed to the equivalent of thousands of chest x-rays in the first hour after the accident. Based on government data and models, we estimate that in Houston 525 people would ultimately suffer and die from latent cancers associated with this exposure. In addition, the economic costs would be enormous, with the cleanup costs alone estimated to range from $10 to $150 billion.”
As Ken Cook explained, it’s possible people who live in Texas and other states astride the train and truck transit routes for nuclear waste would support the Yucca Mountain plan despite these risks. On the other hand, maybe they’d decide that the odds of an accident producing unmanageable contamination are too great to be worth the gamble.
Either way, we at EWG want to make sure that people all across the country know the score -- not just the risks to Nevadans, where the waste would end up, but to every community and neighborhood through which the government wants to send thousands of tons of radioactive garbage.
Photo by ahockley
Leave a comment