(The Akron Beacon Journal posted the following story by Bob Downing on its website on July 17.)
AKRON, Ohio — A top-secret train carrying highly radioactive nuclear waste may have gone through Northeast Ohio this week.
Officials would not provide any information about the shipment, other than to confirm that the train left West Valley, N.Y.
It was carrying a shipment of spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants, destined for storage in Idaho.
The rods are contained in two giant casks, both weighing 100 tons, with steel walls 9 inches thick. The casks are 20 feet long and 7 feet in diameter and carried on separate rail cars.
Officials said earlier there would not be a health or environmental threat from the shipment unless the casks were to break open.
The one-time shipment had been planned and publicized two years ago, but was postponed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
After that, security surrounding the shipment became super tight.
As reported two years ago, two possible routes for the train took it through Akron and Cleveland.
The preferred route was on the CSX Transportation line crossing Portage, Summit, Wayne and Medina counties and passing through the heart of Akron and several suburbs.
The departure of the train was reported Wednesday by the Buffalo News, but all other information about the shipment was classified, said the Department of Energy, which wouldn’t provide information to members of Congress.
The Ohio Department of Health and West Valley Nuclear Service Co., the company handling the shipment for the U.S. Department of Energy, confirmed the shipment’s departure.
John Chamberlain, a spokesman for West Valley Nuclear Service Co., said no specifics on train routes or schedules were being offered, with the exception of noting that the train was proceeding safely with no problems.
He said he was unable to say when the train departed on the four-day rail trip to a federal facility near Pocatello, Idaho.
West Valley Nuclear Service and government agencies will be able to comment on the shipment when it is completed, Chamberlain said.
The Buffalo newspaper said the train may have left late Sunday or late Monday.
Officials from the Akron Fire Department and the Summit County Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday they had no knowledge of the train passing through the Akron area.
“We don’t know anything about it,” said Annette Petranic,head of the Summit County agency.
Federal law requires the Department of Energy to notify Ohio’s Emergency Response Agency and the Public Utilities Commission of such shipments.
Officials from those agencies were unavailable for comment on the reported shipment.
The two casks hold 125 spent fuel assemblies from nuclear power plants. The radioactive waste is a result of the first commercial effort to reprocess used uranium from nuclear power plants from 1966 to 1972.
In 1980, Congress authorized the Department of Energy to spend $1.6 billion to clean up the radioactive wastes.
Ohio was satisfied with the preparations surrounding the shipment, Ohio Department of Health spokesman Brett Atkins said.
But environmentalists were not happy.
The threat of an accident involving radioactive waste in cities like Akron or Cleveland is troubling, said Chris Trepal of the Cleveland-based Earth Day Coalition.
“It’s just a huge concern,” she said.
Trepal said she understands the secrecy involved in the shipment but would feel better if law enforcement and emergency response officials along the route had been notified in advance.