Saturday, July 03, 1999
Radioactive train load worries Indianans
Fernald dirt to cross 11 counties
BY JOHN KELLY
The Associated Press
FOUNTAINTOWN, Ind. — The tracks that cross the northern edge of this Shelby County town are about to become the route of choice for trains hauling radioactive dirt from the Fernald uranium plant to a remote storage site in Utah.
Later this month, trains carrying low-level nuclear waste from Fernald will pass through Union, Fayette, Rush, Shelby, Hancock, Marion, Hendricks, Putnam, Parke, Clay and Vigo counties in Indiana.
“I hope it doesn't derail or it'll end up right on our front porch,” said Anna Foster, whose house is less than 100 feet from the tracks that run parallel to Railroad Street in Fountaintown. “I hope they're careful.”
Government officials say they are being very careful and residents need not worry.
The U.S. Department of Energy dispatched the first trainload of waste from Fernald, about 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati, through Indiana in April.
The first few trains followed a CSX Corp. line that runs from Lawrenceburg to Vincennes. But CSX negotiated with the energy department to use the second route in central Indiana.
Each train has 40 to 60 cars — all equipped with special liners and covers to guard against leaks. Each will bear signs warning of the sensitive cargo. Shipments will happen once a month for a few months, then increase to twice a month.
The trains are carrying waste ura nium and thorium, mixed with dried soil. Radiation levels on the rail car surface is about a third of a chest X-ray, according to the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA). Six feet away from the rail car, the radiation exposure is similar to what people experience in their everyday environments, according to SEMA.
By 2004, about 120 of the radioactive shipments will have crossed Indiana.
The federal government is spending millions at Fernald to clean the radioactive contamination from nearly 40 years of processing uranium, which was used to make nuclear weapons for the U.S. military.
The government expects to send a train to Utah every three to four weeks. The tainted dirt is from waste pits at Fernald which have held solid and liquid waste since the 1950s.
In a notice to police and emergency officials in the 11 affected coun ties, SEMA officials explained: “The material is an environmental hazard, rather than an immediate danger to life or health.”
SEMA will train local police and firefighters in those counties to deal with accidents.
“They gotta put it some place,” said Herschel Foster of Fountaintown.
The Fosters are not really frightened. They said transporting the tainted soil in well-sealed cars on a freight train seemed safer than putting it aboard trucks on crowded highways, where an accident seems more possible.
Shelby County Emergency Management Director Jack Boyce agreed.
“There are more chemicals hauled in semis that go up and down the interstate every day that are more dangerous than what's on these trains,” Mr. Boyce said.
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