Overview of High-Level Nuclear Waste Materials Transportation: Processes, Regulations, Experience and Outlook in the U.S.
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| 012511_final_report_transportation_of_nuclear_waste_material.pdf (691.81 KB) | 691.81 KB |
Every year, more than 300 million packages of hazardous material are shipped in the
United States (U.S.). Most of the hazardous material shipped – about 97 percent – is
flammable, explosive, corrosive or poisonous. About 1 percent – three million packages –
of the hazardous materials shipped annually contains radioactive material, most of them
from medical and industrial applications. [DOT 1998b]
Spent nuclear fuel comprises a very small fraction of the hazardous materials packages
shipped annually in the U.S. At the present time, fewer than 50 packages of spent nuclear
fuel are shipped annually. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), prior to the termination
of the proposed Yucca Mountain repository program, had expected to eventually ship
between 400 and 500 spent fuel transport casks per year during the first twenty years of the
repository’s operation. Despite the widespread attention that those proposed shipments had
received, this would have been only about one in a million of all hazardous materials
packages transported in the U.S. on an annual basis.
