Nuclear Truckers Haul Warheads Across US

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Nuclear Truckers Haul Warheads Across US

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday February 19, 2012 @10:09PM from the why-can't-the-history-channel-make-a-show-about-that dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "As you weave through interstate traffic, you're unlikely to notice a plain-looking Peterbilt tractor-trailer or have any idea that inside the cab an armed federal agent operates a host of electronic countermeasures to keep outsiders from accessing his heavily armored cargo: a nuclear warhead. Adam Weinstein writes that the Office of Secure Transportation (OST) employs nearly 600 couriers to move bombs, weapon components, radioactive metals for research, and fuel for Navy ships and submarines between a variety of labs, reactors and military bases. Hiding nukes in plain sight and rolling them through major metropolitan centers raises a slew of security and environmental concerns, from theft to terrorist attack to radioactive spills. 'Any time you put nuclear weapons and materials on the highway, you create security risks,' says Tom Clements, a nuclear security watchdog for Friends of the Earth. For security, cabs are fitted with custom composite armor and lightweight armored glass, a redundant communications system that links the convoys to a monitoring center in Albuquerque, and the driver has the ability to disable the truck so it can't be moved or opened. The OST hires military veterans, particularly ex-special-operations forces (PDF), who are trained in close-quarters battle, tactical shooting, physical fitness, and shifting smoothly through the gears of a tractor-trailer. But accidents happen. In 1996, a driver flipped his trailer on a two-lane Nebraska hill road after a freak ice storm, sending authorities scrambling to secure its payload of two nuclear bombs; and in 2003, two trucks operated by private contractors had rollover accidents in Montana and Tennessee while hauling uranium hexafluoride, a compound used to enrich reactor and bomb fuel."

11 of 461 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

How else they gonna do it? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-19 22:14 · Score: 5, Funny

use UPS or Fedex?
1. Re:How else they gonna do it? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-19 23:54 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  This is how you're supposed to do it.
  Great job old chap!
  I can't wait for your next topic: oral hygiene.
2. Re:How else they gonna do it? by sphealey · 2012-02-20 00:08 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  ===
  In the UK, nuclear weapon convoys are unmistakable, and they are incredibly heavily guarded. The weapons are carried in armoured articulated lorries, but they are accompanied by escorts from the police, the nuclear constabulary, the regular army, the marines, decoy trucks, recovery tow vehicles, fire tenders...
  Regional roads are closed entirely for them while they pass by, patrolled by police on foot. Nothing is allowed to block their way. They don't stop.
  ===
  While you are observing all that, the actual nuclear warhead is being moved in a regular looking lorry marked TESCO.
  sPh
3. Re:How else they gonna do it? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-20 00:43 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  This is how you're supposed to do it.
  Great job old chap!
  I can't wait for your next topic: oral hygiene.
  Ah, yes, because all of us Brits have awful teeth. It's odd how socialised medicine results in no-one ever going to the dentist... ~
  What we don't have is a culture of unnecessary orthodontic work and overpriced private practices being the only way to get treatment. Case in point: a few months ago I had two wisdom teeth removed, which cost me under £100 on the NHS. It wouldn't have cost me a penny if I couldn't have afforded it.
  I expect you'll want to take the piss out of our food next, which is always a bit rich coming from a country whose greatest contribution to cuisine is "cheese" (notice the quotes) in a can.
Re:Accidents happen by Cryacin · 2012-02-19 22:25 · Score: 5, Funny

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

Followed by Eisenhower's lesser known quote, "All your base are belong to us"

--
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
Re:How's it feel by Z00L00K · 2012-02-19 23:42 · Score: 5, Funny

So is Sodium Chloride.

--
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Re:Trains? by Rogerborg · 2012-02-19 23:42 · Score: 5, Funny

Why not use trains, at least for most of the journey?
Two words: Atomic Hobo.

--
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Re:Accidents happen by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-20 00:02 · Score: 5, Funny

Some of the scientists were quite eager to create it.
"Jamie wants big boom."
Re:How's it feel by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-20 00:22 · Score: 5, Funny

What if you got it in your eyes, then there would be enough to kill you and _YOU WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO SEE IT_.
Re:How's it feel by Crazy+Ike · 2012-02-20 01:13 · Score: 5, Funny

My eyes...the goggles do nothing!
Re:How's it feel by Quince+alPillan · 2012-02-20 03:32 · Score: 5, Funny

Honestly, he should be more afraid of a truck full of bananas. http://xkcd.com/radiation/