Nuclear Truckers Haul Warheads Across US

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."

Comments

Re:How's it feel

[flyneye]

A little like a fallacy. since 90k lb. loads require special "lowboy" trailers with extra sets of tires and believe me, you notice these.
Speaking as a shipping professional with more experience than many of you have in breathing, it's not hard to put two plus two together.
1. During anytime of day in any metropolitan area, the same local truck drivers network the city on sameish routes. These guys note who is out and anything strange they see like funny looking trailers pulled by drivers they don't recognise.
2.This whole concept deals with a government bureaucracy doing something outside an office and claiming some degree of success in their efforts. Bullshit! See #1.
3. Unless they got an experienced driver and trained him to be a Fed, his driving is going to stand out to other drivers like a neon sign that says IDIOT to other experienced drivers.
4. Martin Mariettas payloaders are going to have to be dissembled to load anyway. If it's big it will go on a flatbed with a "box-tent-cover or just a tarp. Not too subtle. If it's small and can be forklifted in, it can go in a box trailer and be hidden.
5. The government is made of bigger bunglers than you work with, they did after all have to choose an employer that seldom fires for anything just to have a job for more than a week.

So, you see, this story is just so much gov.public image meant to lul you into that secure feeling. Working?