That’s right. A truck. A tractor-trailer to be exact. Transporting uranium. All by itself. Crashes. On an interstate. In North Carolina.
But of course, “There’s no threat to the public…it’s a low grade uranium.”
Whew! And I thought just the fact that we were having our uranium driven around by an unsecured truck, during a time of war, when Islamists are known for taking classes about how to drive trucks but not interested in learning how to back up, was a threat to the public.
UPDATE:
In Comments, Paper Tiger has been kind enough to get us this link of the truck with video goodness.
Linky goodness:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1114715/
Story has pics of the truck. A husband and wife team were driving when it ran off the road. Perhaps the vetting process for those authorized to transport low grade radioactive material needs to be re-evealuated.
I’ve driven that route many times while traversing from my brother’s house in Raleigh to my dad’s home in Goldsboro.
It can be a bit tricky if you’re not familiar with the area…not to mention how dark the freeways get out there in the sticks.
And I once was nearly run off the road one night by what I suspect was a drunk driver…right near that exit as a matter of fact.
Tammy;
You are right to be very concerned about the transportation of radioactive material.
Fortunately, there were no major injuries as the result of the accident. Additionally, and equally thankfully, there was no release of radioactive material.
I’d like to point your readers/listeners to the NEI Nuclear Notes blog, maintained by the Nuclear Energy Institute with contributors both inside and outside the nuclear power industry.
Here is a post about the accident, shedding light on the transportation mechanisms and the history of safety in the transportation of radioactive material to and from nuclear facilities.
http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2006/12/truck-carrying-low-grade-uranium.html
To view images of the types of testing done on transportation containers, you can view several videos on Google:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=nuclear+container+test&hl=en
Some wonder why this isn’t getting more press. The reason is that there really isn’t much of a threat of radioactive exposure. There is, to be fair, more risk of a truck carrying bleach wrecking and pouring its contents into a water source than of a truck of radioactive material leaking radiation. I suppose even the press isn’t willing to be that out of line with reality.
Merry Christmas,
Bill Gross