Radioactive Container Truck Spewing Gamma Rays Into Traffic on I-270 in Saint Louis, Missouri

To say the the driver of that truck didn't know there was dose coming off of his trailer is silly, in the video it is clearly marked "Radioactive".

And another thing, having worked in a nuclear facility we had two types of waste. Radioactive Trash, and what is called "Green is Clean". When we separated the green bags (non-radioactive) and yellow rad bags, any rad bag that was under 0.5 mr/hr was considered "Green is Clean" because of the dose being so low. Anything that was between 0.5 mr/hr and 20 mr/hr was shipped in a sealand container such as this one and put on a train.

This is being a bit blown out of proportion in my opinion.

Ok what does the placard say on the trailer, it is triangle shaped with a number in it? I have my dangerous materials handbook here, so i can tell ya what materials might be.

I think the safety of the main company transporting medical radioactives is worth a cursory investigation by the
folks here.Perhaps this is considered a safe level of radiation which is not harmful to the public to transport in this fashion.
The nukelear eddycated here say its a minimal, almost ridiculously low amount of escapng radiation.
The obvious concern is the chance of spillage on the roads due to mishap or accident.
What exactly is being hauled and is it being transported safely?
Thats a worthy question set to have answered.
Its possible there is a case of familarity breeding contempt for rules by the workers involved in the loading etc....
We do have the right to know these things dont we?

The maximum radiation density allowable to the public from any source of radiation is 2mr per hour, which is .02Msv.

There was not enough radiation coming from that truck to be harmful to anyone.

Simply a case of people with radiation survey meters and no training to understand the readings it displays.

reply to post by firemedic10

Here is a screenshot of the video itself, with zoom.
imageshack.us...
And here is USDOT HAZMAT Definitions.
imageshack.us...
Source
Sorry not sure how to get images to be viewed in the thread

reply to post by camaro68ss


that vid is a text book exaple of what happens when you give an idiot a scientific instrument whey do not understand

Originally posted by bh325es
Take a look at this chart linked below, and you will realize how very little radiation that really is. This chart is in microsieverts and the counter they were using is in millirem.

1 millirem (mrem) = 10 microsievert (µSv)

Radiation Does Chart

The meter got up to about .3 something so on the chart that would be about 3 microsieverts.

edit on 8-7-2011 by bh325es because: (no reason given)

Indeed many are ignoring valuable information, I assume this would be a per hour counting as well so it would be akin to living next to a major nuke plant for a day if you drove this truck for that same hour.

It does make you wonder what gets shipped around in some of these trucks, it does remind me of a show or documentary video a long time ago of the trucks that would ship nukes by night in Denver or Utah.........wait was that Bowling for Columbine.....me thinks so.

reply to post by expat2368


I was just about to post a lengthy thing to say what you just said in two lines.

Thank you!

We need to end this post-Fukishima radiation hysteria.

reply to post by camaro68ss


Uh. Gamma Ray's? # this thread.. Any idiot knows you can't make gamma ray's unless you have a supernova...Even if a tanker full of spent nuclear fuel can't produce gamma rays. Gamma rays travel faster then the speed of light for # sake. What the # kind of post is this???

Originally posted by sevensheeps
funny little something here, I tried to post the link provided by the op on my Facebook, but it does not allow me to post it. It said something about abusive posts?

Really strange

yeah, I got the same message. Media blackout...

LolBut did you see the comments underneath the post on this site..

theintelhu... b.com/2011/07/08/radioactive-container-truck-spewing-gamma-rays-into-traffic-on-i-270-in-saint-louis-missouri/

Thats way too much radiation, thats like standing in chernobyle for 2 hours.
I feel bad for that driver, he s probably gona be driving that truck for 10 + hours, probably going to be sick in a month…

Reply
Ken says:
July 8, 2011 at 1:43 PM
Chris,

Obviously you could use a crash-course in radiation safety. 311 is not even 1 millirem per hour. It’s not even 1/3 of a millirem. That company you people are trying to expose are well inside the limitations that the DOT/NRC allow. In fact, those readings are 30 times under the allowable limit.

Do us all a favor and get educated before spewing liberal hysteria amongst the masses.

There’s your first lesson, dufus!

Have a nice weekend.

Reply

reply to post by MrFake

.3 MR/H is a low level of radiation, which you would have to be in contact with for over an hour to experience harm (if any) from it.

More like 1000 hr for which you would have received a dose of 300 mrem - equal to dose normally receive over a
year from natural sources

radiation expouse = dose rate (rem or mrem 1/1000 rem ) x time

Radiation warning placards are divided in several classes from DOT Haz Mat Guide

Type A - material shipped in non life threating amounts, partial release expected if container damaged

Type B - Life threatening amounts, packaging more substanial, release not expected

White shipping label - radiation level outside undamaged package less than .5/mrem per hr

Yellow Ii and Yellow II higher levels of radiation, level indicated on packing at distance of 1 meter from pacakage

From what you saw was a White label package (less than .5 mrem)

Most likely either low level rad waste or possibel oil well loging or pipeline equipment depending on size of truck I

Question is what is someone doing with geiger counter in car?

Sounds suspect aka BS !

reply to post by SelfSustainedLoner


Nothing travels faster than light. As far as we know.

And also, these "rays" aren't anything special. This means that waves from all kinds of sources that have sufficient energy can all be classified as Gamma rays.

Waves are waves, they just differ in frequency and orientation of propagation.

The radiation detected by the Geiger counter may be alpha, beta, or gamma. (all different levels of frequencies from different subatomic interactions and decays).

Alpha radiation wouldn't penetrate your t-shirt, it wouldn't penetrate the closed window of the car.

That geiger counter isn't a geiger counter. It's a Dosimeter.

It's measuring in RAD's (mR/hr), which is cumulative exposure which will effect biologicals.

If that was a geiger counter counting in Counts Per Minute they would have really seen some ticking.


Everyone please go read what a RAD is and how it's used in radioactivity measurement exposure.

Years ago on I-26 in NC I passed a semi and I did not see any warning signs nor was I looking for any. I just happened to turn and see the driver warring a radiation hazmat suit while driving the truck. I got away from that truck fast. I have no idea was he was hauling but he sure did. It must have been like an oven in that suit in the middle of summer and yet he was warring it while driving? Not good at all.

Originally posted by camaro68ss

We got stuck next to this truck during the 7pm July 1st holiday traffic on North bound I-270, after seeing the Radioactive warning placards we pulled out the Geiger Counter and Camera. Lesson learned, AVOID RADIOACTIVE TRUCKS!

The Geiger counter samples over a 30 second moving average, updated every 3 seconds.

Notice how the reading on the Geiger Counter keeps moving upwards after we pass the truck; had we stayed next to the radioactive truck the readings would have went even higher.

Pray for the truck driver; the source of gamma rays appeared to be located almost directly behind the driver.

One would think that these things would be much more heavily shielded, located further away from the driver, and that such materials would be transported when other people are not on the road.

The truck exited I-270 at Lilac Ave.

theintelhub.com...

Attached to the link is a video of them testing the rig.

Um, this needs to go viral! GAMMA RAYS, spewing into traffic! For those that dont know Gamma Rays are the most deadly of radiation! Who over looks the safety of trasportation of radioactive materials? This is an outrage!

Ok I totally understand traveling with a camera in the car but really, a gieger counter? Is that standard equipment on what this person is driving? Who has a gieger counter? Anyone on ATS keep this particular piece of equipment in their glovebox? Nah me either.

Originally posted by LucidDreamer85
reply to post by PhantomLimb

 

Radiation isn't just like water vapor and disapears .

It has a half life.

It will be near that area for years. or in the same state or region at least.

Sorry honey its radioactive materials that have half lives not the radiation itself. That does disapate just like water vapors.

I dunno... does everyone drive around with gieger counters these days, or is this someone who's noticed alot of nuke trucks lately and decided to test one for rads one day, just for s*its and giggles?

Would make CIA sense though, throwing in a few gamma ray leaks in densely populated areas to kill off a few hundred thousand more...

Gee... isn't that what they did in the 40's and 50's? expose certain populations, WDC included, to radiation to study its affect on humans? Looks like the Congressional investigation didn't collect enough data and, now they're doing it again!

Suck it up sheeple... since you won't stand up, you must sit down. 6 feet down, that is.

Nighty night....

The Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada on the already contaminated ground is ready to lock up all the nuclear waste in the country. We spent billions to build it..

So why is it not being used and why are nuke plants and radiation labs still storing stuff on site?

Because of transportation fears... just like this story

Originally posted by PhantomLimb
Do they all do this or could the trailer have been damaged? If they all do it then perhaps the radiation dissipates after a certain time frame. Either way, this sounds disturbing.

Radiation "dissipates" when it's done degrading into stable elements and this differs based on the source material.

can be 2 years, can be 2000 years, but whatever the source, it's never good.