Truck load with Radioactive Material?

Years ago i was driving through the deserts of Nevada, i believe it was 2004.

While driving, a tractor trailer truck passed on the right with a flat bed trailer. On the trailer was a medium sized, very reinforced looking black container. Surprisingly, and i remember this clearly, there was a Nuclear symbol on the container.

The truck promptly took an inconspicuous exit somewhere in the middle of Nevada.

Is it common for fissile material to be trucked out in the open like this? What exactly could this have been? And labeled this way?

Anyone with knowledge on the subject id appreciate your input. Been wondering about what i saw for years.

a reply to: OneGoal

I have an old military compass with a radioactive symbol

Your truck could have been anything..

But to answer your question, yes; they routinely transport radioactive material using unmarked domestic trucks.

a reply to: semperfortis

Thanks!

That blows my mind, but i can see why theyd do it that way. Sometimes the best hiding place is in plain sight.

You can usually pick them out because they are spotless.

The ones carrying the devices or real secrety guidance packages anyway.

a reply to: OneGoal

look up super trucks. i use to stand guard over them when a weapon was loaded.


here is a video and my post in a thread about them.


www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: OneGoal

It's not necessarily fissile material. Those casks transport class 7 radioactive material. It's some kind of emitter, probably heading to storage. I passed 7 or 8 of them one day in a 10 hour shift.

originally posted by: hounddoghowlie
a reply to: OneGoal

look up super trucks. i use to stand guard over them when a weapon was loaded.


here is a video and my post in a thread about them.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Fascinating stuff thanks for chiming in.

I dont think this truck had a security detail.

I've seen nuclear material on a truck bed pass thru Des Moines, used to have a picture but it was probably 2 phones ago.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Good correction Zaph. Title faux paux i realized that as well.

Here is a good link on class 7 materials:

www.searates.com...

a reply to: OneGoal

Most of them don't, because they don't need them. That could be anything from spent fuel rods, to burned out x-ray generators, to a pile of junk that used tritium to light it up.

You see them a lot near the Pacific Northwest, and Nevada. They both have nuclear facilities that deal with materials storage.

a reply to: OneGoal

my understanding there are a couple of nuclear waste sites in nevada.
here is a slide show of area 5.

Area 5
and the article with it.
Radioactive waste to be shipped to Nevada site starting in 2014

then there's was/is yuca mt.

a reply to: OneGoal

You mean a radiological symbol? Radioactive equipment, pieces of machinery....the triangle, circle, what colors...theres at least 10-20 different radiological-nuclear emblems, maybe more...different symbols and colors and warning words-letterings.

Check out IMAGES on GOOGLE. It could have been anything...

a reply to: OneGoal

I'm going to guess that the truck was on Highway 95 and turned off onto Mercury Highway, headed toward the town of Mercury. If so, then it was most likely going into the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR).

The fact that the load on the flat bed had the international symbol for radioactive material means exactly that; whatever was inside the transportation canister was emitting penetrating radiation.

The NTTR is qualified to receive and handle both simple radioactive materials (gamma emitters, etc.) as well as nuclear weapons material (Special Nuclear Material, or SNM). However, I believe that whenever SNM is being transported, it is unmarked, which (I think) would be required by the Atomic Energy Act.

So this was probably NOT weapons material.

More probably related to the Yucca Mountain Storage facility--which I think is what Zaphod was suggesting.