Potential barge routes, on U.S. surface waters, to ship high-level radioactive waste to NV, NM, and/or TX

• NIRS factsheets on barge shipments of deadly high-level radioactive waste on waterways, by state (published on September 28, 2004; the cited 2002 route maps were published by the U.S. Department of Energy, in the context of Yucca Mountain, NV-bound shipments; however, de facto permanent parking lot dumps in TX and/or NM could use very similar, or even identical, barge shipment routes). Such barge shipments are necessitated by the fact that more than two-dozen U.S. atomic reactors lack direct rail access. Thus, to move the giant, 100+ ton rail-sized casks to the nearest railhead, either barges, or else heavy haul trucks (a puller truck in front, and perhaps even a pusher truck in back, and 200 wheels in between on the trailer; heavy haul truck shipments can only go a few miles per hour, and cannot negotiate significant curves in the roadway) must be used:
• • MD - Chesapeake Bay
  • VA - James River
  • DE - Delaware Bay
  • NJ, NY, CT - Waters Surrounding New York City
  • MA - Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts Bay, and Boston Harbor
  • IL, MI, WI - Lake Michigan
  • LA, MS - Mississippi River
  • TN, AL - Tennessee River
  • NE, KS, MO - Missouri River
  • CA - California Coast
  • FL - Florida’s Atlantic Coastline