Radioactive Dairyland Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Pressure Vessel about to embark by train from near LaCrosse, WI to Barnwell, SC!
Help alert the media in your state about it, as well as about the countless thousands of high-level radioactive waste shipments that could follow if Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership isn’t stopped in its tracks!
Dear Friends of NIRS in DC, GA, IL, IN, KY, MD, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, and WI,
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your states are on the most likely route between Genoa, WI and Barnwell, SC for the impending shipment of the intensely radioactive reactor pressure vessel from the Dairyland nuclear power plant. The radioactive reactor vessel is currently resting on the ground at the plant, awaiting insertion into the cylindrical transport/disposal container within which it will be shipped, by rail, to the radioactive waste dump at Barnwell for burial in a shallow ditch. Although we do not know for sure when the shipment will commence, it seems likely to begin within days. It would likely take a number of days for the rail shipment to make it all the way to Barnwell. Our friends at Nukewatch in WI have alerted us to this impending shipment, and would welcome help with their “train watching” network to track the shipment. They are even seeking folks who might accompany them as they follow the shipment by car. Contact Nukewatch at nukewatch@lakeland.ws or (715) 472-4185 if you can help them in any way.
The timing of this radioactive waste shipment is quite the coincidence. NIRS, in cooperation with study sponsor Common Sense at the Nuclear Crossroads and dozens of other groups across the country, will release a new report next Tuesday, May 22nd entitled “A Study of the Problems with the Transport and Reprocessing of Nuclear Waste in the Carolinas.” The report focuses on mapping the likely routes that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) would use to ship irradiated nuclear fuel – by highway, railway, and waterway – to the reprocessing facility being proposed under the Bush administration’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). The report presents a case study, showing all commercial nuclear reactors north of the Carolinas and east of the Mississippi River, shipping their wastes either to DOE’s Savannah River Site, or else to Barnwell, SC. Ironically, Barnwell is the very place where, any day now, the Dairyland reactor vessel is being shipped by train for dumping in a ditch.
As the rail maps in this new report clearly show, the most likely route for the radioactive reactor vessel train shipment between WI and SC would pass through IL, IN, KY, TN, and GA. However, the shipment could also be routed through OH, PA, MD, DC, VA, and NC.
To get a feel for what a radioactive reactor vessel shipment to Barnwell looks like, go to http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/hlwtransport/nukewatch122003.htm for an article that appeared in Nukewatch’s newsletter about the Big Rock Point radioactive reactor vessel shipment, by heavy haul truck and train, from Charlevoix, MI to Barnwell, SC in October, 2003.
Thus, the radioactive Dairyland reactor vessel represents a “trail blazer.” Although this shipment has its own radiological risks, they are dwarfed by the hundreds, to thousands, to tens of thousands of high-level radioactive waste shipments that could follow if GNEP goes forward. These shipments are vulnerable to accidents or attacks that could release disastrous amounts of harmful radioactivity long distances downwind and downstream, and also represent “mobile x-ray machines that cannot be turned off” rolling through our communities, exposing innocent bystanders to harmful gamma radiation at close range.
If you haven’t already, please consider joining NIRS on Tuesday, May 22nd by helping to spread the word to the media about the radioactive reactor vessel likely headed your way, as well as the countless thousands of additional “Mobile Chernobyls” and “dirty bombs on wheels” that DOE may try to bring through your states and communities under its GNEP plan. Let us know that you’re interested, and we can send you all the materials you’ll need – a model press advisory, a model press release, the full report and set of radioactive waste transport route maps, as well as additional fact sheets and handouts – to either hold your own press conference in your community, or else put out a press release to your media list.
Together we can stop this unnecessary, risky radioactive waste shell game before it starts!
P.S. To learn more about a recent victory against the Barnwell “low” level radioactive waste dump, and the blow it represents against new reactors, see NIRS homepage at www.nirs.org. For more background information on Barnwell from the SC Sierra Club, go to http://www.dontwastesc.com/content/blogcategory/0/42/
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