reports & links

Transportation of nuclear fuel waste will come with its own set of hazards and risks. The practice is relatively unknown in Canada, and the few incidents of highly radio-active nuclear fuel waste being transported in Canada are not comparable to the frequency and volume of transportation that would be required to move all of Canada's nuclear fuel waste to a single location. There are risks of accident, but there are also concerns with the transport of the fuel under "normal" conditions. 

Nuclear transport accidents and incidents - World Information Services on Energy (WISE)
WISE References:

• "Burning truck hauling nuclear load flies under radar" Toronto Star, October 2013
• Next Destination - Antwerp'", Martyn Lowe, August 2013
• Ship loaded with fissile material, explosives burns, May 2013
• Trucks with radioactive cargo fail inspections, Toronto Star November 2013
• Ontario Ministry of Transportation Report on Truck Inspection Failures , November 2013

Nuclear Waste Transportation Accidents in the U.S. (U.S. PIRG Fact Sheet)

Increase in UK nuclear transport accidents, Nuclear-News, October 2012

Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK – 2011 Review, UK Health Protection Agency, October 2012

 “Assessment of the Risk of Transporting Spent Nuclear Fuel by Truck", Pacific Northwest Laboratory, for the U.S. Department of Energy, PNL-2588, November 1978.

Other Related  Reports

The Hazards of Generation III Reactor Fuel Wastes: Implications for Transportation and Long-Term Management of Canada’s Used Nuclear Fuel, Greenpeace Canada, 2010

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Transportation Incidents involving Radiation
Training Materials  from the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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Check out the State of Nevada, Agency for Nuclear Project's, Nuclear Waste Transportation website

Nevada has been doing cutting edge work on the risks of road (truck), rail (train), and waterway (barge) shipments of high-level radioactive waste, for decades, as part of its successful opposition to the Yucca Mountain dump.

There have been some 2,500 to 3,000 shipments of solid high-level radioactive waste in US history. But most were many decades ago. In recent years, it has slowed to a very small trickle. Many years, there are ZERO shipments of solid high-level radioactive waste.

Sub-links from the site above, specific to high-level radioactive waste transport risk include: 

•  Potential Consequences of a Successful Sabotage Attack on a Spent Fuel Shipping Container - Radioactive Waste Management Associates (pdf-2.69M),  2008 

•  Assessing the Vulnerability of Yucca Mountain Shipments: A Threat Matrix for Human-Initiated Events, Paper presented at the Waste Management 2008 Conference in Phoenix, AZ (February 24 - 28, 2008) - J.D. Ballard, PhD, et.al  2008 

•  Planning for an Unpredictable Event: Vulnerability and Consequence Reassessment of Attacks on Spent Fuel Shipments (paper presented at WM 2005, the 32nd annual Waste Management Symposium, in Tucson, Arizona, on March 2, 2005) (pdf-344K). 2008
  

•  After September 11th: Risk Assessment of Native American Pueblos and Tribes of New Mexico on the Impacts of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and its Transuranic Nuclear Waste Transportation Routes - Presentation to the Transportation Research Board of The National Academy of Sciences, TRB 86th Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.,23 January 2007 - Sandy H. Straus (pdf-2.90M) 

•  State of Nevada Comments on NRC's Draft Report on Spent Fuel Transportation Package Response to the Baltimore Tunnel Fire Scenario (NUREG/CR-6886, PNNL-15313) 2006

•  Measures of Community Impact for The Transportation of Hazardous Materials: The Case of Indian Tribes and High-Level Nuclear Waste -- Conference Paper - Waste Management 2005 - Fred Dilger, Robert Halstead, James David Ballard (pdf-1.24M) 2005
• Planning for an Unpredictable Event: Vulnerability and Consequence Reassessment of Attacks on Spent Fuel Shipments -- Conference Paper - Waste Management 2005 - Robert Halstead, James David Ballard, Fred Dilger (pdf-336K) 2005

• Radiological Impacts of Incident-Free Transportation to Yucca Mountain: Collective and Maximally Exposed Individual Doses - Paper presented at the Health Physics' Society Annual Meeting, June 2002 (pdf-472K) 2003 

•  Implications of the Baltimore Rail Tunnel Fire for Full-Scale Testing of Shipping Casks - Robert J. Halstead, Fred Dilger (pdf-52K) 2003
• How Many Did You Say? Historical and Projected Spent Nuclear Fuel Shipments in the United States, 1964-2048 - Robert J. Halstead, Fred Dilger (pdf-52K) 2003 
•  Slides: Implications of the Baltimore Rail Tunnel Fire for .Full-Scale Testing of Shipping Casks - Robert J. Halstead, Fred Dilger (pdf-106K) 2003 

•  Worst Case Credible Nuclear Transportation Accidents: Analysis for Urban and Rural Nevada - Matthew Lamb, Marvin Resnikoff, Ph.D. and Richard Moore, P.E. (pdf-3.59KB) 2002

•  Letter from Gov. Guinn to Sen. Reid, re: report entitled, ''Radiological Consequences of Severe Rail Accidents Involving Spent Nuclear Fuel Shipments to Yucca Mountain: Hypothetical Baltimore Rail Tunnel Fire Involving Spent Nuclear Fuel'' 2001
•  Radiological Consequences Of Severe Rail Accidents Involving Spent Nuclear Fuel Shipments To Yucca Mountain: Hypothetical Baltimore Rail Tunnel Fire Involving SNF 2001

•  Risky Transit -- The Federal Government’s Risky and Unnecessary Plan to Ship Spent Nuclear Fuel and Highly Radioactive Waste on The Nation’s Highways and Rail Roads (pdf-971KB) 2001

•  Reported Incidents Involving Spent Nuclear Fuel Shipments 1949 to Present, 2001