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November 29, 2009

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Editorial: A reminder of dangers

Friday, Oct. 10, 2003 | 5:34 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: Oct. 12, 2003

Last week in Michigan an axle broke on a truck carrying a nuclear reactor vessel destined for a dump in South Carolina. Low-level nuclear waste was aboard the truck, not the high-level kind the Energy Department wants to bury in Nevada's Yucca Mountain, but it still reveals the dangers involved in shipping nuclear waste.

The broken axle was fixed, but the company moving the waste parked the truck Tuesday night near a gas station. Not only was the radioactive shipment left near flammable liquids, but the gas station also serves as a school bus stop -- and school officials weren't notified that the truck was there. Communication screw-ups and traffic accidents will undoubtedly occur if Yucca Mountain is licensed, which is plenty reason enough why a nuclear waste dump should never open in Nevada.

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