by Nanette Piotrowski

Created on: July 10, 2008   Last Updated: October 13, 2010

Man's technology has come a long way and nuclear power is going to be a mainstay for generations to come. The largest issue surrounding nuclear power is what to do with the waste from the power plants. In the past, waste has been stored in metal barrels and dumped underground and in the oceans of the world, with distastrous results. As the barrels corroded, the radioactive material has leached into the soil and waterways causing serious damage.

Over the last 20 years, spent nuclear rods have been held in protective containers on site at the nuclear facilities, however, it is becoming infeasible to continue that practice as security has become an issue and space is becoming limited. Because of this, the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) and the DOE (Department of Energy) have legally mandated as of 2007 to relocate 75% of all nuclear waste in this country to an underground repository in the Yucca Mountains in Nevada.

There will be 77,000 tons of radioactive nuclear waste being transported twice per week, starting in the year 2020 by trains. Over a period of 50 years, up to 180 tons of nuclear waste will pass parallel to the highway and within 1000 yards from all major hotels on the Las Vegas strip on its way to the Yucca Mountains. Trains from across the country will be transporting nuclear waste to this site.

The concern is that there are 3,000 train accidents every year, either created by derailments due to faulty tracks, miscommunication of switches or the person who goes around the extended arms and doesn't make it in time. What do train derailments have to do with any issues of nuclear power?

2001 Baltimore, Maryland

A train derailed going through the Baltimore tunnel carrying Hydrochloric Acid. The temperatures reached 1500 degrees and took six days to put out the fire.

2005 Graniteville, North Carolina

A train derailed carrying ninety tons of Chlorine Gas and the fumes killed nine people.

2007 Oakland, California

A train derailed carrying 8600 gallons of fuel. It was so hot that the bridge above, made of steel and cement, melted and collapsed.

2008 Lafayette, Louisana

A train derailed carrying thousands of gallons of Hydrochloric Acid.

In the examples above, the materials transported were chemical compounds with relatively short half-lives. The environmental damage was severe, but limited in both area and duration. Imagine instead that one of those trains carried a cargo of nuclear material.

Imagine, if you will, the following scenario:

A 'Glow Train' (train carrying radioactive materials), is enroute to the Yucca Mountains via the pass-through in Las Vegas. A tired semi-driver on a long haul is falling asleep at the wheel as he crosses the tracks. There is no time for the engineer, even traveling 25 miles per hour, to stop or slow the train down...they collide.

The containers holding the rods come off the train and one of them breaks open. This would create a radioactive cloud, twelve miles long and three miles wide. Depending on the direction of the wind, ten to thirteen million people in Las Vegas and surrounding areas, would be affected.

The death toll would be enormous and Las Vegas would revert back to its original state, a desert wasteland for years to come. Will there be safety and security using trains for this process? More importantly, are the police, fire and rescue and local officials aware of this new process and would they be prepared for such a major event?

Would you want a Glow Train passing through your community? The answers and solutions are complicated at best. Let's hope we don't find out the hard way.

Learn more about this author, Nanette Piotrowski.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.