Radiation Doses to the Public from the Transport of Spent-Nuclear Fuel

Much has been said about the risks to the public from exposure   to radiation emanating from shipping casks transporting spentnuclear   fuel, high-level radioactive waste, and other radioactive   materials. In public comments, the state of Nevada’s Nuclear   Waste Project Office (NNWPO) suggested that the regulatory   limit of 10 millirem per hour two meters from the side of transport   vehicles results in unacceptably high exposures to the public.   Robert Halsted, speaking for the NNWPO, presented verbal pictures   of radiation exposure to pregnant women in vehicles caught   in traffic gridlock next to shipments. At the Waste Management   2002 meeting in Tucson, Arizona, Halsted estimated that a   worker at a truck stop where shipments to Yucca Mountain   stopped to refuel could receive an annual dose up to 1 rem.   Others have suggested there will be environmental justice impacts   in minority communities along routes where there will be exposure   to radiation from passing shipments. Halsted, again speaking   for the NNWPO, called shipments of spent-nuclear fuel and   high-level radioactive waste “rolling X-ray machines that you cannot   turn off.”