Funny I should mention that....

....about not knowing what to do with nuclear waste. No sooner had I posted that than I come across this article.

October 8, 2003

With little public notice and short notification to emergency responders, nuclear energy officials early Tuesday began moving a highly radioactive reactor vessel from northern Michigan to South Carolina. The shipment has already run into trouble, indicating the folly of the governments plan to ship thousands of containers of nuclear waste throughout the country to a storage facility in Nevada.

...Although it has been dismantled, the vessel is highly radioactive due to 35 years of nuclear chain reactions (which made the metal of the reactor vessel itself radioactive) and radioactive contamination from experimental plutonium fuel rods that ruptured within it. Now, it is emitting 10 millirems per hour of radiation (equivalent to one chest X-ray), according to a spokesman for Consumers Energy, the reactors owner. U.S. Department of Transportation regulations allow radiation to be released at a rate of up to 5 rems in 30 minutes in accident conditions; that is equivalent to 500 chest X-rays. The 282-ton reactor vessel will travel by truck and train before reaching its burial site.

The reactor is on a heavy haul truck, which has 18 axles and will travel a maximum of 5 miles per hour. It went from Charlevoix through Petoskey on US 31, then south down the 131 Expressway to State Route 32, and will go east to Gaylord. Already, half an axle broke and four tires have been removed.

..."Officials at the U.S. Department of Transportations hazardous materials office had not even heard about the shipment as recently as yesterday. The public and emergency responders deserve to know about radioactive waste shipments for their own safety," said Kevin Kamps, nuclear waste specialist with Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS).

The reactor will be parked overnight tonight at a truck stop 75-100 yards from a gas station that also serves as a childrens school bus stop, according to Consumers Energy.

..."For the sake of the public and police and firefighters everywhere, the government should abandon its plans to make thousands of shipments of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain," Hoffman said.


If you live along future shipment routes, will you know?

You may have missed getting in on war profiteering, but for future business ventures, I'd suggest something that deals in lead garments.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.