| Radioactive Material Transport in Oregon |
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| Radioactive Material Transport in Oregon |
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Introduction
Each year several hundred shipments of radioactive materials and radioactive waste travel in and through the State of Oregon. The Oregon Department of Energy recognizes that some of these shipments present unique hazards and works closely with other state and local agencies to assure these shipments are safe and uneventful. The Oregon Department of Energy has this lead role because of its staff expertise in radioactive materials and because it also handles issues related to cleanup of the Hanford nuclear site in Washington state.
The 1981 Oregon Legislature passed legislation to regulate the transport of radioactive material in Oregon. Certain shipments of radioactive materials – depending on radiation levels and whether the vehicle is used to haul other materials – require warning signs to be posted on the trucks called “placards.” Oregon statutes require carriers of all radioactive placarded shipments to obtain a state permit prior to transport through Oregon. Permit holders are charged a fee for each placarded shipment that travels through the state. The fees are used primarily to train and equip emergency responders around the state.
The statutes further require the Oregon Department of Energy to ensure the best and safest routes are used and to work with Oregon Health Services to ensure adequate training and emergency planning is conducted along transport routes throughout Oregon.
What’s Moving Through Oregon
Radioactive materials travel in and through Oregon on a daily basis. Small amounts of radioactive materials are hauled on Oregon highways for industry and medicine. Industrial gauges with radioactive sources are also routinely transported to work sites throughout the state. Many of these shipments do not require placards and often go unnoticed by the public.
Shipments which do require placards and therefore a state permit include the truckloads of radioactive waste which are shipped to and from the Hanford Site in Washington state. The federal government created the Hanford Site in World War II to make plutonium for nuclear weapons. Hanford continued that mission until 1988. Its primary mission now is to clean up the radioactive and chemically hazardous wastes created by the plutonium production processes. Other federal sites around the country were also involved in various aspects of nuclear weapons production. The federal government intends to ship waste from some of these other sites to Hanford for treatment or disposal. The federal government also plans to ship Hanford’s most radioactive waste to other sites for disposal. Virtually all of these shipments will travel through Oregon.
Most radioactive material shipments in Oregon are made by truck. There are limited shipments of radioactive materials through Oregon by rail and barge. These shipments are explained later in this fact sheet.
Since the mid-1980s, the number of radioactive placarded shipments through Oregon has dropped substantially, from more than 2,000 shipments in 1982 – about five per day – to as few as 211 during 2002. Shipments in recent years have settled in the 300-450 range. The number of shipments will likely continue to fluctuate from year to year.
Placarded Radioactive Shipments Through Oregon
Because of the proximity of the Hanford Site, by far the largest number of radioactive material shipments in Oregon occur in the northeast part of the state, on Interstates 82 and 84. With the exception of radioactive medical isotopes transported down Interstate 5 and to hospitals and medical facilities primarily in Western Oregon, there are currently few other radioactive material shipments that travel in the Western part of the state.
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| Transport Necessary to Support Hanford Cleanup |
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In the mid-1980s, the State of Oregon recognized that cleanup of the Hanford Site was necessary to ensure the protection of the Columbia River. The state also recognized that the cleanup of Hanford depended on the ability to safely transport radioactive wastes out of Hanford – through Oregon – to disposal sites in other states.
By 1988, the U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE) believed they would soon begin shipments of a specific type of radioactive waste called “transuranic” to an underground disposal site near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Transuranic wastes are generated primarily during the research, development and production of nuclear weapons. The wastes consist of laboratory clothing, tools, glove boxes, rubber gloves, glassware, and solidified waste contaminated with small amounts of radioactive materials, such as plutonium and americium.
State officials in Oregon supported the plan to ship transuranic waste from Hanford as a means to help protect the Columbia River, despite the fact that it would result in thousands of such shipments through Oregon.
Even though the transport of radioactive materials is already highly regulated by the federal government, the state also recognized the unique hazards and the increased scrutiny these shipments receive from the public, the news media, and local elected officials. The Oregon Department of Energy, along with a Governor-appointed citizen advisory board, met with elected officials, emergency responders, the public, and the news media in Pendleton, La Grande, Baker (now Baker City), and Ontario to ask for input in developing a comprehensive transport safety program. The program needed to include operational requirements, driver and carrier qualifications, winter weather restrictions and other elements to help reduce the likelihood of an accident and beef up emergency response capabilities.
There was a good deal of initial skepticism in the route communities that the shipments could be sufficiently safe, and concern that existing emergency response capabilities were not adequate along the entire route. Eventually, a series of recommendations were developed over of several months, with follow-up meetings in each of the towns. The recommendations were taken to the Western Governors’ Association, and from there, a dialogue began with other Western states and eventually with US DOE. The Oregon citizen recommendations were refined and expanded upon, but formed the foundation for what eventually became a comprehensive transport safety program that is used for all the transuranic waste shipments, as well as certain other shipping campaigns. These safety provisions include extra-regulatory agreements that US DOE was not obligated by law to do, but which they have agreed to follow.
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| Accident Prevention and Emergency Preparedness |
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Most truck accidents can be avoided by alert, skilled drivers using quality equipment, who avoid driving when road and weather conditions are particularly hazardous. These preventative measures were used to develop the accident prevention portion of the program. But even with these precautions, some accidents will occur. Therefore, an effective emergency preparedness program is also necessary and was developed by the Western states and US DOE. The transportation safety program is described below.
High-Quality Drivers and Carrier Compliance
The U.S. Department of Transportation sets standards for drivers of trucks that carry hazardous cargo. US DOE, recognizing the heightened public interest in radioactive material shipments, agreed to go beyond these regulations for its drivers and carriers. US DOE adopted rigorous driver and carrier performance requirements to ensure that only highly qualified drivers and vehicles free of defects are used for transuranic waste shipments. The drivers must have extensive, accident-free experience and are tested for drug and alcohol abuse.
Safety Inspections
All transuranic waste shipments are inspected by state personnel using standardized, enhanced truck safety inspection requirements. The Washington State Patrol inspects all Hanford transuranic waste shipments before they depart. Because these shipments have traveled only about 35 miles before reaching Oregon, Oregon truck inspectors randomly inspect only a sample of these shipments. Trucks must be in top working order. The comprehensive inspection includes brakes, tires, lights, turn signals and cask tie downs, as well as many other items. Drivers’ logs are checked to ensure drivers have not been at the wheel more hours than are allowed. Radiation surveys of the shipping containers are taken to ensure radiological standards are met. State inspectors are trained and certified by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, a North American organization of commercial vehicle inspection agencies. The inspection requirements for these shipments are more stringent than for most other hazardous material shipments.
Bad Weather and Road Conditions
The Western states and US DOE have agreed on procedures to monitor weather and road conditions so that transuranic shipments can avoid particularly hazardous road conditions. Shipments do not depart US DOE facilities if they are likely to encounter severe weather. If any of more than a dozen National Weather Service “watches” or “warnings ” are in effect, such as a Winter Storm Warning or a Dense Fog Advisory, the shipments do not depart – even though the freeway may be open and other truck traffic is moving. Shipment schedules also avoid places and times where there is heavy traffic (such as rush hours through major metropolitan areas and holiday weekends).
Safe Parking
If shipments encounter unexpected bad weather or road conditions, the drivers select a safe parking area based upon criteria developed by the states, or the state directs the shipment to a pre-selected safe parking area.
Advance Notice of Shipments/Access to Shipment Status
All transuranic waste shipments are monitored and tracked through a satellite system called the Transportation Tracking and Communications System (TRANSCOM). Oregon and other corridor states have direct access to this system. TRANSCOM provides near real-time tracking of shipments on the road. TRANSCOM supports two-way satellite communication with the drivers, the carrier and US DOE.
Highway Routing
The route used through Oregon for these shipments is exclusively Interstate highways. US DOE selected routes early in the process and committed to directing its carriers to only use these routes. This early route selection allowed Oregon and other states to focus their training efforts along the routes where the shipments occur.
Emergency Response Plans and Procedures
A well organized, coordinated effort is needed to make response to an accident swift and effective. Plans and procedures, specifically designed to deal with transportation incidents involving the transuranic waste shipments, have been developed and tested in the corridor states.
Training
Since the early 1980s, the State of Oregon has trained thousands of local firemen, police officers, emergency medical personnel and other first responders throughout Oregon to respond to a radioactive material transport accident. Additional training to prepare for the transuranic waste shipments occurred on the Interstate 82/Interstate 84 shipping route. Training exercises are periodically conducted along Oregon’s major shipping routes.
Emergency Response Equipment
Radiation detection equipment has been provided to emergency responders and hospitals along the shipping route and elsewhere throughout the state.
Transuranic Waste Shipments From Hanford
This comprehensive safety program has been in effect for all US DOE shipments of transuranic waste through Oregon. Limited shipments of transuranic waste from Hanford began in July 2000 but have since become a significant percentage of the radioactive material shipments through the state. Just 13 shipments were made from Hanford in the first three years of shipments. A total of 48 transuranic waste shipments were made from Hanford in 2003, 66 in 2004, and 100 in 2005. US DOE made 79 shipments in 2006 and 75 shipments in 2007. About the same number of shipments are expected in each of the next few years. All the shipments are made by truck. An estimated 2,500 shipments are planned from Hanford – through Oregon – to New Mexico during the next 30 years.
Low-level Waste
Until the recent surge of transuranic waste shipments, the large majority of radioactive material shipments that have historically been transported through Oregon were low-level waste shipments. Because of the sometimes-confusing definitions of various radioactive materials, the term “low-level” does not always equate to a low level of hazard. While many of the low-level waste shipments that have traveled and do travel through Oregon pose very little hazard, some of these shipments contain highly radioactive materials.
The federal government has been sending low-level waste to Hanford from other US DOE sites around the country for decades. Those shipments have been pretty much stopped in recent years due to litigation initiated after US DOE selected Hanford in 1999 as a preferred choice for the disposal of low-level waste from throughout its nuclear weapons complex. The exact number of additional shipments this may result in is unclear, but would likely number at least in the few thousands, and potentially in the tens of thousands. Once US DOE completes a comprehensive environmental analysis of the impacts of disposing of radioactive waste at Hanford, they will be allowed to resume shipments from other sites and begin implementing their 1999 decision. That environmental analysis is due to be completed in 2008.
There is also a commercially operated low-level radioactive waste disposal site located within the boundaries of the Hanford Site. Low-level waste from hospitals, nuclear power plants and universities in 11 Western and Rocky Mountain states – including Oregon – is buried in this commercial disposal site. These shipments were not affected by the litigation over waste being brought to Hanford from other US DOE sites.
Some low-level waste is also transported through Oregon to a commercial treatment facility near Hanford.
Naval Nuclear Reactor Compartment Shipments
Since 1986 the U.S. Navy has disposed of 117 reactor compartments from deactivated nuclear submarines and cruisers at Hanford. The Navy removes the spent nuclear fuel (which is highly radioactive) from the reactors, cuts out a section of the submarine or cruiser containing the reactor compartment, and welds steel plates over any openings to seal the compartments. The compartments are then shipped by special barge up the Columbia River to Hanford for disposal in a large pit. The compartments are low-level waste. Until recently, the Navy made between seven and 10 shipments on average each year. Only one to two compartments are now typically shipped each year.
The state provides notification to local and state emergency response agencies prior to each shipment. The Washington Department of Health and Oregon Health Services periodically inspect these shipments prior to their departure to ensure they meet state and federal transport regulations.
Rail shipments
Spent nuclear fuel from Navy ships is periodically sent by rail from Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington to the Idaho National Laboratory. These shipments travel through about 200 miles of northeast Oregon. The Oregon Department of Energy works with the Navy to provide information on these shipments to state and local emergency responders.
Other radioactive materials are also occasionally shipped by rail through the state.
Spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste
The federal government continues to move forward with plans to build and operate a geologic repository for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste. When open, spent nuclear fuel from the shut-down Trojan nuclear power plant and the Columbia Generating Station nuclear plant near Richland, Washington would be shipped through Oregon to the repository. High-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel from Hanford would also be transported to such a facility. At the earliest, the facility – proposed at Yucca Mountain, Nevada – will not be open prior to 2020, and likely not for several years beyond that.
Extensive planning and training will occur before any spent fuel shipments occur in Oregon. Western states have been negotiating with US DOE to develop a transportation safety plan comparable to the one that is being used for the transuranic waste shipments to New Mexico.
Safety Program is Proven
More than 6,400 shipments of transuranic waste have been transported safely to New Mexico from eight DOE sites, including nearly 400 shipments from Hanford. There have been a few minor accidents involving these shipments – mostly fender benders – but no accident that resulted in a release of radioactive materials.
That’s not to say it can’t or won’t happen, but the transport record so far is very good, and the comprehensive transportation safety program developed cooperatively by the states and US DOE for these shipments played a significant part in achieving that safety record.
To Learn More:
For more information about the transport of radioactive materials through Oregon contact:
Ken Niles
Oregon Department of Energy
Nuclear Safety Division
625 Marion Street NE,
Salem, OR 97301-3737
Phone 1-800-221-8035 (in Oregon) or 503-378-4906
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