That massive truck wipeout that has closed Highway 36 by Dinsmore since about noon? Get this — it’s 110 feet long, just about twice as long as the legal limit for Humboldt County — and it’s intended for carrying nuclear material. Although everyone assures us that its contents were innocent at the time of the crash.
“It’s the biggest truck I’ve ever seen,” said Officer Paul Dahlen of the California Highway Patrol about the super-truck just a few minutes ago. “It shouldn’t have even been here. It shouldn’t have been on 36, on 299, on 101 — it shouldn’t have been up here.”
The truck is 110 feet long. The longest truck you can legally drive into Humboldt County is 65 feet long (unless you have a cattle exemption, I believe).
Presumably the fellow was contracting with PG&E, which in the process of slowly dismantling the Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant. But why Big Man took Hwy 36, of all routes, is still a mystery. To hide?
In any case, according to Dahlen you can put away your Geiger counter. “There’s nothing HAZMAT about this,” he said.
This article appears in What Now, Treesitter?.
Very hairy. Did you call PG&E?
I am stuck in town, as I live 2 miles east of the accident. Most unfortunate, as I am part of the local EMS up in the Dinsmore area and I was supposed to be on call starting at 5pm yesterday for the Labor Day weekend.
Looks like I will be taking one of the 1 1/2, 2 hour detours to get home today.
This along with the local airport being closed, requiring alternate LZ locations for helo transport (as the ambulance obviously cannot get to Redwood Mem. Hosp.)will make things more challenging than they already are for rural EMS
(continued)I am sure this route was chosen for low population… It certainly was not chosen for safety. There are curves that a truck that length cannot navigate. period. As they seem to have discovered.
Considering that the spent fuel rods from the plant need to leave the county somehow, they better have more coordinated plans at that point.Looking at: http://www.nmcco.com/education/facts/safety/transport.htm
It appears they omitted training the locals in safety and EMS related to transport of nuclear materials as well as questionable investigation as to appropriate routes.
I’m just glad the thing is empty.
Hi Dottie. Those fuel rods do NOT need to leave the county. I want to make sure that folks understand that while that cask can be used as a shipping cask for irradiated fuel from the Humboldt nuke plant, it is going to be used for on-site storage at the plant site. The fuel rods at the Humboldt plant will likely stay on site forever. This accident is a perfect example of why we do not want PG&E to attempt to move its high-level radioactive waste away from the plant. The cask that is stuck will be filled with fuel rods when it arrives, then lowered into a crypt that is designed to handle the huge earthquake that will eventually occur at the plant site, and is above the likely tsunami water level.
Dottie, I am in Sacramento. If this has not been cleaned up yet, is there any chance you can take some photos for me?
Isn’t hwy 36 part of a Dept. of Homeland Security national security route of some sort? I have heard this from a number of people in the past.
The other casks came in other ways. This is the fourth cask.
Plus there is no need for security for delivering an empty cask.
I was under the impression that it was against Federal Regulations to transport nuclear material, the reason that Yucca Mountain is still “empty”.(supposedly)
Thanks Michael, I remembered later the plan was to store the rods on the PG&E site. No where to take them, anyway.
I was unable to take any photos as, when I finally got there they had reloaded the container onto another truck and it was moved to the turnout by the Church Camp. It was about the size and shape of a 3500 gal round water tank, and a clean, new looking cream color. Not what I expected.
The truck itself was at the turnout at the top of Larabee Valley. A huge low boy with, um – trailer addendums. I really don’t know the terms for this.
I also heard there were other containers which had come in over 299. And that they were new and unused. But the folks up here also heard many other things, presumably from good sources, so it is hard to separate fact from fiction. We go with what makes the most sense given what they are trying to do at the PG&E plant.
I have not heard anything about Hwy 36 being a special Homeland Security route.
My real point was that taking a 110 ft long rig over this particular highway is probably physically impossible and, in fact, illegal on any highway in Humboldt County. Trucker people I know noted that they should have switched to a different truck when they left the interstate. There are different requirements for all the different highways. AND they should definitely check the route before dispatching a long or particularly wide or otherwise odd load… no?
Highway 36 has that one 5 mile section of narrow (too narrow to have a line down the middle), tight curves where this type of semi-truck accident has happened many times. Big rigs here could benefit from one of the long time log truck drivers who knows the route!
Lost a semi of irrigation pipe earlier in the summer. At least that one rolled down the hill and did not block the road… But to the detriment of the driver(broken but not dead), the truck, and the environment (they do leak diesel and such).
I’m pleased to be home, on call, and have the road clear. I’m impressed they got it open as fast as they did… only about 28 hours.
“I have not heard anything about Hwy 36 being a special Homeland Security route.”
I probably stated that incorrectly. It is a Homeland Security corridor that overlaps somewhat with HWY 36 and is used for utilities now. Anyone know about this?
Is it really true that there are Three unaccounted for fuel rods?
Did the truck driver get a ticket? It seems that the CHP doesn’t release this information. And the news media doesn’t care…
Jeff Muskrat Says:
Aug. 30, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I was under the impression that it was against Federal Regulations to transport nuclear material, the reason that Yucca Mountain is still “empty”.(supposedly)
Hi Jeff. No, that is not the problem. It is not against the law to transport nuclear material. But there is no permanent place to take high level nuclear waste like irradiated reactor fuel.
But it is definitely unsafe to transport this waste anywhere.
Moviedad Says “Is it really true that there are Three unaccounted for fuel rods?”
Not exactly, but there three fuel rod segments that are not accounted for. Once the irradiated fuel is out of their spent fuel pool, and they have had a chance to remove the infrastructure in the pool, they may find the missing fuel segments. But chances are they were long ago sent to another facility along with some other junk. Record-keeping and nuclear materials-handling regulations were not as stringent back then as they are now. We will likely never know what happened to those missing fuel segments.
listen my dad was sent on that rout he had no choice they gave him that load and told him were to go and how to get there and they pointed him in that direction all this other crap happend unexpectdley and it was hell for him to deal with so believe me he was no dummy and said oh im mapping this rout myself and i think ill put my freakn huge truck on a little mountain side!!!!!come on people
Thanks to Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) for routing the truck that way. The driver did not pick the route, your state employees did. “Rogue Nuke Truck Closes 36” how California the Sky is Falling dramatic. Good for you Hannah for standing up for your Dad. Too bad the State of California and Arnold won’t do the same by admitting their mistake.