Nuclear Transport Drivers Drink. Do They Drive, Too?

We bet you've all seen Armageddon. Remember how, at one point (one of the scenes we found at the time to be particularly amusing) Steve Buscemi mounted the nuclear bomb the team was carrying and was so kindly advised by William Fichtner to “get off the nuclear warhead”?

Well, for some reason, this scene came to mind when we learned what assistant inspector general Sandra D. Bruce from the Energy Department found out when looking into how nuclear weapons and components are moved about in the US.

The details of the investigation and what was discovered are not known, but the essential problem is this: drivers of trucks transporting the aforementioned goods have been found to have a nasty habit of getting drunk while on the job.

And we mean habit because not one, not two, but some 16 alcohol-related incidents have been investigated. Again, the details are not known, but Bruce calls the incidents “a potential vulnerability” in what may be considered one of the most important jobs in the US.

According to NPR, some of the agents who transport nuclear material (there are some 600 of them currently active) drank overnight, at hotels, and their trucks were in “safe harbor” status. This doesn't mean however that the drivers were allowed to drink.

Nuclear weapons and materials are transported across the US by the Office of Secure Transportation (OST), part of the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration.

According to official data, since its inception in 1975, there have been no accidents leading to fatality or release of radioactive materials.