What are the risks to first responders?
No one has any meaningful experience in dealing with a release of radiation from a train or truck wreck involving high level nuclear waste. There are plans in place for reactor meltdowns, and plans in place for transportation accidents involving low level nuclear waste. But there is no experience or plan for first responders dealing with a major rail or highway accident involving highly radioactive nuclear waste. In a severe accident with a breach of the cask and leaking radiation, first responders could be exposed to lethal levels of radiation in a very short time. Death could occur as a result of acute radiation poisoning, or a latent cancer, depending on the magnitude and duration of exposure. There is no equipment short of impractical lead shields that can protect first responders from gamma radiation coming off a major nuclear waste train or truck wreck. A person standing three feet away from unshielded nuclear waste will receive a lethal dose of radiation in about two minutes. Th
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