72 incidents reported in nuke transportation

Since 1949, 72 incidents involving irradiated nuclear fuel in transit have been reported to the federal government.

The incidents, reported by the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratory near Albuquerque, N.M., include anything from minor accidents to four times that radioactive contamination escaped the vehicle. That's out of a total 2,500 shipments.

Eight of the incidents involved leaks of radioactive water or other liquids from casks discovered during transport.

Some examples taken from risk reports on incidents of leaks include:

* In June 1960 a container with a pinhole leak allowed small amounts of radioactive liquid to contaminate three rail yards, one of them in a major city that was not named. The railroad put the leaking cask on a special train for the rest of the trip.

* In August 1962 a truck shipping irradiated fuel containing plutonium leaked along its route. Contamination was discovered at one location and the affected paved street was replaced.

* In July 1976 a Tri-State Motor Transit Co. truck stopped in Rock Springs, Wyo., en route from the San Onofre Southern California Edison plant. The driver noticed a leak during a routine inspection. Nuclear inspectors allowed the radioactive shipment to continue to the Idaho National Energy and Environmental Laboratory.

* In December 1997 four white boxes containing low-level nuclear waste on a truck headed for the Nevada Test Site were discovered to be leaking water. One box found in a truck that had stopped in Kingman, Ariz., had leaked almost two gallons of liquid. Although the liquid from that truck proved not to be radioactive, the box was returned to Fernald, Ohio, in a special container secured in another truck.

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