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Dr. Rick Strickert of Austin, TX, asks:
If issues of health and safety are ever resolved for the storage or
disposal of plutonium and spent nuclear fuel, what kind of security
restrictions might one expect to be placed on public access to highways
and roads used for transportation of these radioactive materials?
Tom Carpenter of the Government Accountability Project replies:
Plutonium and nuclear materials are already being shipped across the United
States on a daily basis. Security is an issue, but there are some excellent
"engineered design barriers" in place that help to make it extremely
difficult to actually obtain these materials in a timely manner. The bottom
line is that these materials should be kept in secure and safe locations and
their movements minimized as much as possible, as much for security as for
health and safety considerations.
Jim Werner of the Department of Energy replies:
The shipment of most radioactive materials are regulated by
the Department of Transportation and the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. In the case of plutonium, shipments are made under tight
security and are heavily guarded. Public access to highways and roads
is not restricted during transport of these materials. For spent
nuclear fuel there are other safety and security requirements that
must be met. For example, these materials are in packages that are
extremely robust and require special tools and machinery to open.
They are also escorted and require a physical protection system that
minimizes the possibilities for sabotage, provides for notification of
appropriate response forces of any sabotage attempts, and impedes
attempts to sabotage or illicitly move shipments.
Next question....
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