Hazardous waste rolls down I-70
Hazardous waste rolls down I-70: "Hazardous waste rolls down I-70
By KATIE FRETLAND of the Tribune’s staff
Published Monday, June 13, 2005
Trucks carrying low-level radioactive waste have driven down Interstate 70 for about a month, and they will continue to do so this summer on a trip from Fernald, Ohio, to a disposal facility in Clive, Utah.
The state Department of Natural Resources notified local emergency response services last week about the 275 planned shipments of hazardous material from a Cold War uranium refinery in Fernald. From 1952 to 1989, the federal refinery produced high-purity uranium metal fuel cores for use in weapons production. The site is closed and in the process of being cleaned up.
The former refinery is shipping the "conditioned" waste - cold metal oxide in a crumbly, dry form, marked as Radioactive Class 7 - in soft-sided packages called Supersacks, said John Sattler, U.S. Department of Energy spokesman for the Fernald refinery closure project. Each truck contains eight 4,000-pound packages.
About 10 trucks per week will leave the refinery and take the Ohio-to-Utah route through Missouri. Shipments are scheduled to end in late September.
Alan Reinkemeyer, environmental emergency response section chief with DNR, notified officials in Missouri of the shipments in an e-mail Friday. "I am confident that these shipments will pass through Missouri safely and without incident," he said. "These are considered low-level waste shipments."
Reinkemeyer said, however, that accidents are always possible and encouraged local agencies to be prepared.
Jeff Wagner, a spokesman for Flour Fernald, the private contractor handling the cleanup, said only two accidents have occurred in more than 6,700 shipments from the refinery since the 1980s.
"There is always some risk associated with the shipping of hazardous materials, whether it is low-level waste or gasoline," Sattler said. "Our goal is to minimize the risk in transportation, processing and shipping."
The Boone County Fire Protection District and the Columbia Fire Department would respond with hazardous waste teams to any highway emergency involving the trucks, officials said.
Doug Westhoff, assistant chief with the fire district, said the notification allows highway motorists to take extra security measures and use additional caution. "The reality is that hazardous materials roll up and down this interstate every day that we’re not notified about," he said.
Flour Fernald ships the radioactive material on tractor-trailers and trains drivers on how to handle emergencies.
About 2,200 shipments en route to Texas also began traveling through Missouri from Fernald last week on I-44.
Reach Katie Fretland at (573) 815-1731 or kfretland@tribmail.com.
"
By KATIE FRETLAND of the Tribune’s staff
Published Monday, June 13, 2005
Trucks carrying low-level radioactive waste have driven down Interstate 70 for about a month, and they will continue to do so this summer on a trip from Fernald, Ohio, to a disposal facility in Clive, Utah.
The state Department of Natural Resources notified local emergency response services last week about the 275 planned shipments of hazardous material from a Cold War uranium refinery in Fernald. From 1952 to 1989, the federal refinery produced high-purity uranium metal fuel cores for use in weapons production. The site is closed and in the process of being cleaned up.
The former refinery is shipping the "conditioned" waste - cold metal oxide in a crumbly, dry form, marked as Radioactive Class 7 - in soft-sided packages called Supersacks, said John Sattler, U.S. Department of Energy spokesman for the Fernald refinery closure project. Each truck contains eight 4,000-pound packages.
About 10 trucks per week will leave the refinery and take the Ohio-to-Utah route through Missouri. Shipments are scheduled to end in late September.
Alan Reinkemeyer, environmental emergency response section chief with DNR, notified officials in Missouri of the shipments in an e-mail Friday. "I am confident that these shipments will pass through Missouri safely and without incident," he said. "These are considered low-level waste shipments."
Reinkemeyer said, however, that accidents are always possible and encouraged local agencies to be prepared.
Jeff Wagner, a spokesman for Flour Fernald, the private contractor handling the cleanup, said only two accidents have occurred in more than 6,700 shipments from the refinery since the 1980s.
"There is always some risk associated with the shipping of hazardous materials, whether it is low-level waste or gasoline," Sattler said. "Our goal is to minimize the risk in transportation, processing and shipping."
The Boone County Fire Protection District and the Columbia Fire Department would respond with hazardous waste teams to any highway emergency involving the trucks, officials said.
Doug Westhoff, assistant chief with the fire district, said the notification allows highway motorists to take extra security measures and use additional caution. "The reality is that hazardous materials roll up and down this interstate every day that we’re not notified about," he said.
Flour Fernald ships the radioactive material on tractor-trailers and trains drivers on how to handle emergencies.
About 2,200 shipments en route to Texas also began traveling through Missouri from Fernald last week on I-44.
Reach Katie Fretland at (573) 815-1731 or kfretland@tribmail.com.
"
posted by Greta Jane at Tuesday, June 14, 2005
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