INDIANAPOLIS -- A nuclear waste shipment scheduled to rumble by train across northern Indiana later this summer has prompted alarm among some Indiana residents.
The five-car Norfolk Southern freight train, traveling from New York to Idaho, will be carrying dumbbell-shaped casks containing 125 used nuclear fuel rod assemblies.
The Citizens Action Coalition has begun waging protests, dubbed "Mobile Chernobyl," to focus attention on the shipment. Critics say there are myriad dangers to shipping nuclear waste, ranging from terrorists to an increased risk of cancer to tollbooth operators because of repeated exposure to low-level radiation.
"It concerns me," said Sharon Clark of Fort Wayne. "I don't understand why they have to travel through our state."
"But then I don't know what they can do with it," Clark added. "They can't burn it and make it go up in smoke."
The exact shipping date has not been announced.
Rex Bowser, radiation specialist with the Indiana State Department of Health, plans to measure the level of radioactivity when the train stops for a crew change this summer in Indiana.
But Bowser shouldn't detect any more radiation that that generated by a chest X-ray, according to John Chamberlain, a spokesman for West Valley Nuclear Services, the New York company shipping the material.
"High-level radioactive material has been transported for 30 to 40 years in this country, and there has never been a major incident," Chamberlain said.
According to U.S. Atomic Energy Commission reports, there have been 72 incidents involving spent nuclear fuel shipments since 1949. All were reportedly considered minor.
This summer's shipment won't be the last to cross Indiana if Congress authorizes a nuclear waste repository in Nevada, scheduled to open in 10 years.
"We're looking at 8,000 shipments going through Indiana over the next 30 years when they start rolling all the nuclear waste from power plants all over the United States by rail and over the interstates on trucks," said Grant Smith, environmental coordinator for the Citizens Action Coalition.
"If the nuclear waste is going to its final destination and will be put in a more secure place, then it has to be moved," said Purdue University senior Shaun Moore.
However, Moore also said there's always the potential for danger, citing an accident last week in Baltimore involving a train leaking acid.
"I definitely think nuclear power generation needs to be phased out so we're not continuously shipping this stuff forever," he said.
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