Shipments may pass through 45 states.  Yet there will be absolutely no public process to review these routes – not by the NRC, not by the DOE, and not even by the U.S. Department of Transportation.  This is a massive and dangerous shipping campaign, but the NRC refuses to scrutinize it when considering DOE’s application to build the dump.

Furthermore, DOE does not even have complete plans to transport nuclear waste or to build the dump at Yucca Mountain, which is in an earthquake-prone environment.  In fact, DOE readily admits that designs for the repository will be at most 35% complete when it asks NRC to license it.

Even worse, the Environmental Protection Agency has not decided what levels of radiation can be “safely leaked” from the dump.  EPA has proposed a dangerously lenient radiation standard that completely disregards the health and safety of future generations.  But, with less than half the designs for the dump complete, it is preposterous to think that NRC is in a position to decide that a nuclear waste dump could meet EPA’s terrible proposed radiation standard.

Quick Facts

• Volume for 38 Years: 43 states would receive shipments. 15 states will experience daily shipments of deadly high-level radioactive waste.
• Some affected cities: New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Phoenix, Hartford, Des Moines, Omaha, Sacramento, Baltimore, Cleveland, Salt Lake City, Washington, DC
• Sample duration: 1 truck shipment of deadly high-level radioactive waste will be required every 4 hours, 24-hours a day, 365 days a year for 38 years.
• Contents: Each transport container heading to Yucca holds enough long-lived radiation to create a devastating dirty bomb.