WTF?? Why are maps Being released with Nuclear Truck Routes

[plank white]

Source: http://teapartyeconomist.com/2012/02/22/map-of-the-nuclear-waste-highways/

Across America’s highways drive the nuclear truckers. We don’t think about them, but they are out there.

Now there is a map that shows where the routes are. Most Americans have never seen this map.

“Is that it?†My wife leans forward in the passenger seat of our sensible hatchback and points ahead to an 18-wheeler that’s hauling ass toward us on a low-country stretch of South Carolina’s Highway 125. We’ve been heading west from I-95 toward the Savannah River Site nuclear facility on the Georgia-South Carolina border, in search of nuke truckers. At first the mysterious big rig resembles a commercial gas tanker, but the cab is pristine-looking and there’s a simple blue-on-white license plate: US GOVERNMENT. It blows by too quickly to determine whether it’s part of the little-known US fleet tasked with transporting some of the most sensitive cargo in existence.

As you weave through interstate traffic, you’re unlikely to notice another plain-looking Peterbilt tractor-trailer rolling along in the right-hand lane. The government plates and array of antennas jutting from the cab’s roof would hardly register. You’d have no idea that inside the cab an armed federal agent operates a host of electronic countermeasures to keep outsiders from accessing his heavily armored cargo: a nuclear warhead with enough destructive power to level downtown San Francisco.

That’s the way the Office of Secure Transportation (OST) wants it. At a cost of $250 million a year, nearly 600 couriers employed by this secretive agency within the US Department of Energy use some of the nation’s busiest roads to move America’s radioactive material wherever it needs to go—from a variety of labs, reactors and military bases, to the nation’s Pantex bomb-assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas, to the Savannah River facility. Most of the shipments are bombs or weapon components; some are radioactive metals for research or fuel for Navy ships and submarines. The shipments are on the move about once a week.

I’ll bet you never thought about this. I know I didn’t.

Then I saw the map.

There is a problem here with terrorism.

Dr. Matthew Bunn, a Harvard professor who advised the Clinton White House on how to keep nuclear materials secure, acknowledges that nuclear convoys carry risks. “A transport is inherently harder to defend against a violent, guns-blazing enemy attack than a fixed site is,†he says. Moreover, in recent years the OST’s nuke truckers have had a spotty track record—including spills, problems with drinking on the job, weapons violations, and even criminal activity.

To see the map, click the link. http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/nuclear-truckers

[macville]

Ummm... this kinda thing isn't hard to figure out. All it takes is some legwork and some time. All you would need to do is watch a truck come out of one facility and see where it goes. It's pretty basic detective work.

[Guest bkelm18]

There isn't much a terrorist could do with this. They could blow up the truck and release some amount of radioactive material but over a very limited area. They can't make a nuclear bomb out of it if it's reactor fuel. Fuel used in reactors isn't enriched enough to do that. If it's a warhead, it's not a complete one, just the parts. I guess they could make a dirty bomb if they stole the material from the truck, but there are better ways that attract less attention than hijacking a government truck. I say the bigger risk is the truck crashing and spilling it's contents which is just a fact of life in the nuclear age.

Edited February 23, 2012 by bkelm18

[Mike.357]

Big secret. They use the Eisenhower Interstate System to transport.

So does everyone else.

[Lumber_Jack]

There isn't much a terrorist could do with this. They could blow up the truck and release some amount of radioactive material but over a very limited area. They can't make a nuclear bomb out of it it's reactor fuel. Fuel used in reactors isn't enriched enough to do that. If it's a warhead, it's not a complete one, just the parts. I guess they could make a dirty bomb if they stole the material from the truck, but there are better ways that attract less attention than hijacking a government truck. I say there's more of a risk of a truck crashing and spilling it's contents which is just a fact of life in the nuclear age.

^^^^this

Plus if you think they are just lone trucks on the highway, think again. They have guys with guns and itchy trigger fingers, just waiting for the day they get to shoot a terrorist.

[R_Bert]

Folks, there are multiple transport systems within the NNSA and DOD complex.

What Matt Bunn talks about, and what is mentioned in the referenced blog and comments are completely different organizations; each with their own methodologies and infrastructure.

Simply put, if you can identify it, it ain't worth worrying about.

[gnmwilliams]

Google "Ghost Fleet" and you'll see (only what they want you to) how the important stuff is shipped. In the words of the penguin on Madagscar, "You didn't see anything"