Nuclear Truckers: The Axles of Evil?

[jettakd]

Big rigs with bombs are secretly cruising the interstate near you. But how safe are they from terrorists or accidents?

-By Adam Weinstein | Wed Feb. 15, 2012

Comments

[crossfire]

Semi-OT: this particular topic once resulted in one of the funniest headlines I've ever seen, this must have been ~15 years ago now. There was a trainload of nuclear waste on its way to a storage facility, and it was going to be passing very near the small town of Thermal, California. The residents of Thermal were quite upset about this, and the resulting newspaper article was headlined, "Thermal Nuclear Train Reaction".

[squeeful]

You know that editor was walking around for months with a huge grin on their faces for getting to use that headline.

[lickety_split]

LMAO!

[13chapters]

In 2010, DOE inspectors were tipped off to alcohol abuse among the truckers. They identified 16 alcohol-related incidents between 2007 and 2009, including one in which agents were detained by local police at a bar after they'd stopped for the night with their atomic payload. After several agents and contractors were caught bringing unauthorized guns on training missions in Nevada between 2001 and 2004, DOE inspectors determined that "firearms policies and procedures were systematically violated." One OST agent in Texas pled guilty in 2006 to trying to sell body armor, rifle scopes, machine gun components, and other assault gear he'd pilfered on the job.HOLY SHIT

[squeeful]

Highly unlikely. The routes in the map above are part of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. They're federal, not local or state roads.

Santa Cruz is bypassed because of its geography, not because they declared themselves "nuclear free". Highways 17 and 101 going through the Santa Cruz area are narrow, windy, with sharp turns, steep inclines and banks, and unlike 5 are not designed to maximize traffic flow. Nuclear trucks (and a lot of trucks in general) don't go through there because it's too hazardous, not because it's what the inhabitants want.

[13chapters]

THAT'S WHAT I SAID TO MY COWORKER.

Sorry for the caps, it was a very annoying conversation. (My coworker is a very annoying person, tbh. She insisted she knew better because I wasn't even born yet when Santa Cruz declared itself nuclear free and she was. I went to UC Santa Cruz and know the geography pretty damned well, her whole story made no freaking sense to me.)

[squeeful]

Lol, it's okay!

She can take her self-centeredness and stick it where the sun doesn't shine and the granola won't go.

[tabaqui]

Bleh. Considering the amount of truck accidents on the highway that goes right through central Missouri, i'm not sanguine about any of this. I wish they'd just get rid of the damn things. We have, what, over eight thousand? How can that be considered even *remotely* sane?

*will totally skip the 'the US is the only country to bomb another country with nucks and we need to stfu and sit down before our hypocrisy suffocates us' stuff*

**sort of**

[intrikate88]

Oh, hey, that looks like I-75 coming through Atlanta there! AWESOME!

But then, I grew up in Marietta, and heard from a couple different places that if I knew about what the chemical plants there were doing, I'd be trying to move off the continent. I still don't know what they're doing there, but it sounds like if any significant accident happens, I'll have several interesting ways to have my face melt off.

[farchivist]

I will bet money that they're forced to detour on I285 around the core. I wonder what would happen if there's one of those massive accidents during the rush hour?

[intrikate88]

Oh, for sure. I didn't see any stopping points in ATL on that map so with 18-wheelers they'd be forced to take the Loop.

As for an accident... well I suppose we'd have more than rogue zebras running down 285.

[magicpebble]

I feel like this was part of a plot on 24.

Clearly there needs to be better oversight of these drivers. Nuclear materials and big rigs have their own independent hazards, but combined...

[freuen]

Season 7 if I'm remembering correctly. (Except I think the weapons in question were biological and not nuclear.)

[wrestlingdog]

Pretty sure West Wing had a subplot very much like this in the 3rd season...