June 15, 2004

                 By YVONNE NAVA
                 6 News Anchor/Reporter

LIVER SPRINGS (WATE) -- The mayor of Oliver Springs is upset over potentially hazardous cargo being transported through his town by the DOE.

Highway 61 has plenty of traffic recently, including trips by trucks from Oak Ridge carrying shipments of hazardous waste.

Mayor Ed Kelley says, take it somewhere else. "They come through this town several times a day. We've had one involved in an accident, a minor accident, and we didn't know how to handle it."

The trucks passing through Oliver Springs contain cylinders of uranium hexafluoride, a material used to make nuclear bombs.

According to the Depleted Uranium Management Information Network, uranium hexafluoride can be a liquid, solid or a gas.

Uranium hexafluoride doesn't react with oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or dry air. But it does react with water or water vapor and can form corrosive hydrogen fluoride.

Kelley said the city doesn't have the manpower or the money to handle a possible spill or leak. "My duty is to try and protect the people of this city, as well as the ones who visit here."

Kelley sent a letter to the DOE, expressing his concerns.

DOE representatives declined to go on camera with 6 News, but said they're working on a response to the letter.

Marilyn Newman said she's lived in Oliver Springs for 35 years. "I'd rather they didn't come through here. If that were the only way, it'd be fine. But since there are other alternatives that are closer..."

The route being used is Highway 61 to Clinton to I-75, to a plant in Portsmouth, Ohio.

Kelley said the shorter, more direct route is the Oak Ridge turnpike. He said that weeks ago, waste shipments stopped several times at the crossing in front of Norwood Schools. "I don't think that's right."

Trucks have already shipped more than 700 cylinders, with 5,200 to go. The goal is to have them all out of Oak Ridge sometime in 2005.

The mayor said the city will continue holding Hazmat training sessions with the DOE. The city is also trying to put together a camera system for security in its sewer and water plants.

http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=1943899