The cause for controversy is clear – radiation is a potentially lethal health hazard. In high doses, it can kill within hours. Lower doses can cause cancer and damage DNA. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, many of the long-term effects of low-level exposure to radiation are hard to pinpoint because we are exposed to so many different sources, both natural and man-made.

Despite the fact that radiation can be dangerous in the long- and short-term, current technology and energy needs have prompted an increase in the everyday use of radioactive materials. Radiation is used to decontaminate certain foods and is essential to medical tests like mammograms. Nuclear energy is also used to create power, providing electricity to millions of homes in Texas.

The problem comes when the radioactive source is no longer useful. While some sources of radiation are harmless enough to be washed down special drains, some of low- and high-level radioactive wastes and articles contaminated by radiation are transported to specialized storage facilities far from the places where they were used. And, as any Houstonian can attest, getting from place to place can open a Pandora’s box of unwelcome possibilities.

Among the most potentially hazardous wastes that are shipped around the United States are spent fuels from nuclear plants, Transuranic wastes that come mainly from defense projects, and Uranium mill tailings. These are generally distinguished from low-level wastes, which is a large, less clearly defined group. The Nuclear Information Resource Service points out that low-level waste is determined largely by its volume and not its concentration. Since concentration is a large factor in the volatility of a radioactive substance, some low-level wastes, despite their category, are more hazardous than their name suggests.

In light of this danger, just how much radioactive waste passes through the Houston area? It’s actually hard to say. The first problem is that so many different agencies have jurisdiction over the waste itself. According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, they, along with the Bureau of Radiation Control, which is an office in the State Health Department, and the Texas Railroad Commission have state jurisdiction over different aspects of waste management and different types of waste. Other waste is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Department of Transportation primarily regulates carriers of radioactive waste and approves routes. While all of these agencies have a stake in the process of waste removal and storage, none can offer a clear picture of how much makes its way through Houston. Furthermore, those that may know are prohibited from releasing the information to the public.

Tracking seems to be another issue. While the Department of Energy has an electronic tracking system that it uses to follow certain shipments, other waste is tracked by private companies or not at all. Critics of House Bill 1567, the controversial bill that authorized the privatization of the low-level waste dumps in Andrews County, Texas, point out that the bill does not specify a tracking requirement for shipments in-transit. And while extensive documentation of routes and dates are required, there’s no telling what some drivers are doing along the way.
This concerns many opponents of nuclear waste transportation, including environmental groups like the Sierra Club and Public Citizen, who cite instances such as a lost shipment of low-level waste that was destined for Andrews County. According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, a shipment of low-level waste was taken to a North Texas ranch by a truck driver working for a private contracting company. The shipment was sent from Illinois to Andrews County in July 2001, but was lost somewhere along the way until almost a month later. When it was finally pointed out to police, the waste was found on a ranch, piled on plastic and covered with dirt. The driver had apparently convinced the rancher, who was a friend, to store the waste.

Of course, accidents will happen. A Sierra Club report on nuclear waste transportation in Texas points to flaws in risk assessment conducted by the now defunct Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority. The report claims that an independent consulting firm reviewed the risk assessment and found it underestimated the risk of accidents and potential impacts these accidents have. The report goes on to cite a 23-year period in which some 1,485 accidents involved radioactive materials and 149 shipping packages released their contents.

Despite these incidents, government agencies like the Department of Energy tout the relatively clean safety record of radioactive waste transportation. The question now is whether or not that record can be maintained. As plans for the high-level waste depository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada proceed and states including Texas agree to store waste from across the United States, more radioactive waste will be on the road than ever. Robert Halstead, a transportation advisor to Nevada, testified to Congress that some 1,185 shipments of high-level waste would travel the United States every year under the Department of Energy’s “mostly-rail” scenario, which the department announced was its preferred method of transport this April. This is a staggering increase, considering the total amount of spent fuel that traveled through the United States from 1979-1997 was 1,334 shipments, according to the MapScience Center, published by the Environmental Working Group. Waste that was once stored at its source will now travel, making it, critics argue, more vulnerable than before.

Waste shipment through Texas in particular is likely to increase significantly on several fronts. First, as the Andrews County site continues to fill its millions of cubic feet of waste storage with both government and private nuclear waste, it’s likely that more shipments than ever will be heading to Texas. Transuranic waste from the eastern United States continues to move through the northern part of Texas on its way to the Waste Isolation Project Plant in Carlsbad, N.M. Additionally, the high-level waste headed for Yucca Mountain, some of it from the South Texas Plant in Bay City, will travel by rail through the state, with proposed routes moving through the Houston area.

Environmentalists and citizens’ groups arm themselves with compelling arguments against nuclear waste transportation, from the potential terrorist target waste carriers might be, to the decrease in property value that occurs along waste routes and the grim accident statistics cities like Houston maintain. Despite their arguments, it’s clear that radioactive waste will increasingly ride the roads and rails near places where millions of people live and work.

Jenny Freytag is a freelance writer and instructor at Houston Community College.