What if high-level radioactive waste had been aboard?! -- Arizona train derailment and fire described as 'a scene from hell'

Arizona train derailment and fire described as 'a scene from hell'

as reported by CNN.

Depending on the temperature and duration of a fire, high-level radioactive waste shipping containers could be breached. The design criteria for such containers is for a 1,475 degree Fahrenheit fire, burning for only 30 minutes. Many real world fires burn hotter, and longer, than that. A breach of a container, and the release of even a small fraction of the volatile contents of a cask (such as Cesium-137), would cause a disastrous or even catastrophic release of hazardous radioactivity into the environment.

And if a train bridge collapses above water, the underwater submersion of a high-level radioactive waste shipping container could cause a breach, depending on the depth of the water, and the duration of the submersion. As a Public Citizen backgrounder documents, design criteria for shipping containers only account for a 3 foot submersion, for a damaged container; the design criteria for undamaged casks is for a depth of 656 feet, for one hour. But many bodies of surface water are deeper than 3 feet. And the containers weighing as much as 180 tons, or more, these days, it would require a special crane to lift them -- something that would take much longer than an hour to bring in, set up, and activate. A breach and release could cause catastrophic hazardous radioactive contamination of drinkinging water supplies, fisheries, etc.

In addition, infiltrating water could spark an inadvertent nuclear chain reaction, if a critical mass of fissile material (U-235, Pu-239) forms inside the irradiated nuclear fuel container. This would potentially make emergency response a suicide mission, given the fatal doses of gamma and neutron radiation emitted by a chain reaction. But doing nothing could mean catastrophic releases of hazardous radioactivity into the surface water. See this backgrounder, for more information about such risks.

7/29/20: Beyond Nuclear on Radio Sputnik's "Loud & Clear"

News, #fraud, #illinoiscorruption, #nuclearcorruption, #nuclearenergy, #nuclearfraud, #nuclearreactors, #nuclearscandal, #nuclearwaste, #ohiobailout, #ohiocorruption, #ohionuclearcorruption, #southcarolinacorruption

Wednesday’s regular segment, Beyond Nuclear, is about nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear, and Sputnik news analyst and producer Nicole Roussell, join the show.

Today's episode provides an update on nuclear bribery and fraud scandals in Ohio, South Carolina, and Illinois, resulting in and amounting to as much as $15 billion in "wealth transfer" from hardworking Americans, to the nuclear industry.

Listen to the audio recording, here.

NM Gov. to Trump: Stop CISFs in Permian Basin!

NM Gov. Michelle Lujan GrishamOn 7/28, NM Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (photo, left) wrote the president a strongly worded letter, opposing environmentally unjust high-level radioactive waste consolidated interim storage facilities targeted at her state by Holtec, and on its border by Interim Storage Partners (ISP) at Waste Control Specialists in TX. NRC's deadlines for public comments on its Holtec and ISP Draft Environmental Impact Statements are Sept. 22 and Nov. 3, respectively. See sample comments you can use to write your own, as well as submission instructions to send them to NRC, for Holtec, NM, and ISP, TX; please contact both your U.S. Senators, and your U.S. Rep., urging them to demand NRC extend the deadlines, and hold in-person public comment meetings in your state/district, once safe to do so, post-pandemic. (Holtec licensing hearings, with a public listen-in line, will be held on 8/5.)

Criminal racketeering and fraud arrests bring down nuclear schemes

Arrests of individuals in Ohio and South Carolina related to criminal activity and fraud to keep old reactors running (OH) and keep new ones under construction (SC and now abandoned) made headlines last week. We explain what happened on this week's edition of The Update. (For more, see stories on the Beyond Nuclear International website).

Setsuko Thurlow's powerful call for peace

Nobel Peace Prize-winning Hibakusha, Setsuko Thurlow, makes her appeal for global nuclear disarmament as we head toward the August 6 and 9 commemorations of the dropping of atomic bombs by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Setsuko Thurlow - Nobel Lecture Highlights from ICAN on Vimeo.