Sandra Schubert is the Environmental Working Group's Director of Government Affairs
There were 1,203 train accidents in the first six months of 2008, and 13 of them resulted in the release of hazardous materials.
Yet when the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation met last week to hear testimony about the safety and security of spent nuclear fuel, witnesses from the U.S. Energy and Transportation departments expressed no fear that transportation mishaps might result in the release of radioactivity into neighborhoods.
There’s no dispute about the fact that if the federal government proceeds with its plan to bury nuclear power plant wastes at the proposed Yucca Mountain dump in Nevada, thousands of tons of extremely hazardous nuclear wastes will be shipped through American communities.