Truck carrying 6000 lbs of Uranium overturns in NC

www.foxnews.com ^ | 12/21/06 | Fox News

[cowtowney]

Truck carrying 6000 lbs of Uranium overturns in NC - No thread yet

[cgk]

BFLR. This thread should be preserved in some kind of hall of fame. I expect ALL the usual suspects to show.

[Constitution Day]

Crews Remove Overturned Tractor-Trailer Carrying Uranium on I-40

"Traffic is moving again on part of Interstate 40 in Johnston County after crews removed an overturned tractor-trailer carrying about 6,600 pounds of a low-grade powdered uranium..."

---

NC *Ping*

Please FRmail Constitution Day, TaxRelief OR Alia if you want to be added to or removed from this North Carolina ping list.

[NicknamedBob]

How come nobody said there was a "pile" up?

[uptoolate]

Are you guys for reel?

[uptoolate]

Another drink Mr. Kennedy?

[Gunny Gene]

True. Which is why Boeing, et al, don't advertise the fact that depleted uranium is used in fairly large chunks to balance the control surfaces on every commercial airplane. Folks simply would not understand the difference between depleted and weapons grade. Same deal with 30mm shells.

[unionblue83]

It's called CYOA (Cover Your Own Arse). If they aren't overly cautious then some idiot who gets the flu after being in the general vicinity will file a lawsuit against the government/company who was responsible for this.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Uranium Hexafluoride is a gas (when pure), but it's not transported that way.

Transporting "tons of uranium" is like moving any low-grade radioactive substance or low level waste: at this stage it's a metallic mix or alloy, very low enrichment, with only a few tenths of a percent U235. a few percent U238 (inert), and the rest the alloying agent (like any ore, the "pure" stuff is mixed in with the 90%+ non-Uranium elements.

the mix is in the multiple-staged containers (against spills or truck accidents like this), and those are tested against simple flip-over accidents like this.

the High-radiation spent fuel containers are much, much more robust, and are actually tested by driving a train at full speed through the trailer, then keeping the resulting (dented) container in a fire for several hours, then checking for leaks. (None have.)

[Robert A Cook PE]

I wonder though, where it was going after it got to the Wilmington port.

[THEBEAK]

This is VERY SERIOUS STUFF! One pound of it will surely turn hair white; if not, slowly disintegrate it! Whose to say that those containers were not breached? Isn't that why x-ray machines look for minor cracks in radioactive (vitreous) glass containers? How could they do thorough examination on a highway?

With all the transports of this stuff, there'd better be more accountability for security's sake?

[Robert A Cook PE]

No.

6000 lbs of steel at .281 lbs/in^3 is only 12 cubic ft. Uranium (IF it were a metal - and this was powder!) - is more dense than steel. For example, A simple steel beam 36 inches deep (used on bridges for example) will be between 800 lbs per ft (or as little as 135 lbs/ft.) It depends on how thick the engineer needs the web and flanges to be.

My guess?

6000 lbs = 5000 lbs of container(s), 900 lbs of filler powder, 99 lbs of useless U238, 1/2 lb of U235.

[lwd]

if it reacts with water, it produces hydrogen fluoride-- which is both corrosive and quite toxic

It's currently raining here in my part of NC (north of Charlotte).

[F.J. Mitchell]

They better pick it all up before some good ol' boys build their own nukes. Talk about fishing with dynamite? How about the Fourth of July fireworks? Stump removal? How about every stump on the farm at one time?

[Sword_Svalbardt]

When did you find out about it? Bust out the Rad meters.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

I think this is the unrefined natural metal. Not the refined highly radioactive 235. It is made up mostly of 238 which is not radioactive and called depleted uranium, it has less than 1% 235 which is highly radioactive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium

[padre35]

Baghdad bob Ping!

I can see the CNN headline now

"Presidential Hopeful Edwards choppered to the accident site after dropping flyers advertising his law firm in the local community"

[REDWOOD99]

I'd like a double Nog-a-sake please.

[null and void]

(uranium is extremely dense)

DU?

[ElkGroveDan]

LOL. Oh, like the stuff in my toothpaste. OK.

It makes your teeth so white, they'll glow in the dark.

[beezdotcom]

--gee whiz-think what might have happened if it was gasoline---!!!!!

Exactly. But don't expect the MSM to acknowledge the greater danger.