Battling the Bomb Trains

So Buffalo and the rest of WNY are battling the “Bomb Trains” as they are being called.

They are also being referred to as a“Mobile Chernobyl,” after the devastating accident that happened back in the 1980's.

And the only politician in DC fighting for us in WNY is Representative Brian Higgins.

And I hate to blow sunshine at a representative of the capitalist elite, but he is all that is between WNY and a nuclear disaster.

For those not in the know, the Department of Energy wants to transport highly radioactive nuclear waste from Canada, across the Peace Bridge, through highly populated areas of Buffalo (look at a map of the rail lines. Where else are they going to go?) And down to South Carolina for the next stage in processing before they are put into storage. SC has no ability to render the waste non-toxic in any way. If they did, nuclear energy would not be as deadly as it is today.  Nor would it be an issue or an environmental hazard.

In any event, Higgins has dragged two other pieces of the Federal government into this battle for survival – the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

The EPA should be involved. If any sort of spill happens, they will be charged with cleaning it up. Be it nuclear waste from processing fuel rods for a nuclear reactor, the radioactive medical waste (I've heard plenty about this on Project Censored. Look for their podcasts on nuclear power and Fukushima.), or the weapons grade waste that the DOE wants to ship across WNY. Any sort of mishap that results in a spill will be more than an inconvenience for the people that are around the area.

And if a spill happens around water, like the Genessee River, the Buffalo River, or any waterway that feeds into the Great Lakes … the fecal matter will more than strike the ceiling based air circulation system.

Then there is the Department of Homeland Security, (They are so successful at what they do. They have caught every terrorist that they instigated and entrapped. Please note the sarcasm in that line.) If anyone is interested in making a problem for the US, these very publicized shipments would be an easy way to make a mark.

And what type of security is going to be around these shipments? And how are the bridges going to be secured? And about driving nuclear waste down the NYS Thruway at 65 MPH? Is that really a good idea? Yes, some of the travel will be by rail and others by truck. I am not feeling very safe or confident at this point in any of the plans.

And the Sierra Club-Niagara Branch has been active in this fight too. They started it. (Actually the DOE started it by not taking any sort of serious consideration of danger into their thought process.)And they look to keep fighting it until the trains are stopped.

So, will we face a nuclear disaster?

My hope is that we won't.

The only way to prevent a nuclear disaster is to not make one possible in the first place. And that would mean shutting down the nuclear reactors and getting rid of nuclear weapons.

That alone would save us millions of dollars and millions of lives.

Remember – It's easier to prevent a problem than to fix up the problems after the fact.

Let's prevent this one.