0:00

Have. You ever been stuck behind a big

0:02

rig semi truck on the freeway? And.

0:04

You get annoyed like I've I could just. Get.

0:06

Around this guy the worst is when both of

0:08

them are next to each other right? He really

0:10

noi by that will watch out. Because.

0:12

If one of them does something wrong,

0:15

And. An extremely unlikely chain of events

0:17

unfolds? Probably won't, but if it did, You.

0:20

Your loved ones, everybody else that a

0:23

half mile radius can be vaporized in

0:25

an instant or exposed to deadly amounts

0:27

of radiation because on our nation's highways

0:29

in a bunch of semi trucks that

0:32

look like any other semi truck flanked

0:34

by vehicles look like any other car

0:36

on the road. Are.

0:39

A vehicles that are transporting

0:41

dangerous nuclear car go. Across.

0:44

The country hidden in plain sight. Nas.

0:46

Or going to talk about today here

0:48

on the Council Train podcast. welcome I'm

0:51

your host train horn On Mondays and

0:53

Wednesdays we talk apologetics and theology. How

0:55

do you explain and defend the Catholic

0:57

faith? But on. Friday we

0:59

talk about whatever I want to talk

1:01

about and today what I want to

1:03

talk about is how does the United

1:06

States government transport nuclear materials around the

1:08

country And actually something at the government

1:10

has had to do for the past

1:12

seventy years. And they've changed the ways

1:15

that they've done that over time to

1:17

deal with adapting circumstances are both within

1:19

our own country and abroad when it

1:21

comes to the use of nuclear weapons.

1:23

So that's how we're going to Taiwan.

1:26

Graceless, jump right into it. Very first.

1:28

When nuclear material and weapons were

1:31

first transported around the country. So

1:33

back in the nineteen fifties. So

1:35

you member of course we have

1:38

an eighteen forties were developing nuclear

1:40

weapons. the Atomic Bomb. We have

1:43

the Trinity Test in New Mexico.

1:45

Then. Fat Man and Little Boy

1:48

are used on Hiroshima Nagasaki. More

1:50

were to and then suddenly the

1:52

arms race begins. The Soviets also

1:54

develop nuclear nuclear weapons as well.

1:56

we that arm race and to

1:58

keep up with the Soviet. The

2:00

United. States is trying to create

2:02

more and more weapons stronger missiles

2:04

intercontinental ballistic missiles to be able

2:07

to match the the Soviet threat.

2:10

And so the Cold War has

2:12

begun and you have ah a

2:14

facility is the Pentax plant in

2:16

the Texas Panhandle were law these

2:19

missiles and the warheads are being

2:21

created and then they have to

2:23

be moved to missile silos all

2:25

over the country. And. How

2:27

do you do that? While the first

2:29

way they did that was they did

2:32

it by train to civically they used

2:34

special train called the White same his

2:36

full name is United States Department of

2:38

Energy Nuclear Weapons Transport train. Take.

2:40

A The by train. And this

2:42

was used remains of a D One

2:45

to Ninety Seven. The reason is called

2:47

the White Train is because he carries

2:49

with it a series of box cars.

2:52

Will not. there are boxcars. Their special

2:54

cars designed to carry missiles of warheads

2:56

are the nuclear material. That. Has

2:58

created the Pentax by up. Over

3:00

the country see of these

3:02

very distinctive white cars on

3:04

the train. And the

3:06

cars are then slayings by great

3:08

usually their grey grey box cars

3:10

that have machine gun turrets on

3:13

the top of them to protect

3:15

the train. And so

3:17

now is the idea and for a

3:19

while this works are without anything going

3:21

awry without the public even knowing about

3:23

this. I you had people that would

3:26

just notice I in certain towns a

3:28

white train would pull into the munitions

3:30

plant. I train with all these white

3:32

boxcars or white modified boxcars on them

3:34

and then would leave a known was

3:37

the wiser. Until in the

3:39

Nineteen eighties, you had the

3:41

rise of the anti nuclear

3:43

movements, a nuclear resistance movement

3:45

or thera of Catholics. Roxy

3:47

involved in these campaigns to

3:49

oppose ah, nuclear proliferation. And.

3:52

To oppose the growth of America's nuclear

3:54

arsenal in the wake of fears about

3:56

nuclear war And as things understandable you

3:58

have in the night. The You

4:00

Our films. Probably the one that

4:02

put the most fear into Americans

4:05

was. The. Day after I member

4:07

I rented when I was a

4:09

the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Ah,

4:12

I rented that film from the library

4:14

because I didn't have cable internet internet

4:16

at the apartment I was staying at.

4:18

Ah, so I decide. Okay, this might

4:20

be. Might be something

4:23

interesting to watch and it's

4:25

scary. It's was scared Ronald

4:27

Reagan actually when it came

4:29

to nuclear policy of the

4:32

day after for matinees three.

4:34

There. Is another one that

4:37

is equivalent to that.

4:39

It. Is a British film. Oh, it's

4:41

called Threads. And threads much like

4:44

meetings as comes the British take on things.

4:46

as the American takes, it's much more depressing

4:48

and has more disturbing elements in it's than

4:50

we have in the day after. but both

4:53

of them are really scary. So you have

4:55

these nuclear these protesters and they were able

4:57

to track the white trains where they're going

4:59

to? This is big. White. Trained

5:01

as going around the country and they

5:03

would show up and try to block

5:06

the train. There was actually a nun

5:08

who got almost got hit by one

5:10

of the trains as who's trying to

5:12

block it to prevent different transporting materials

5:14

and weapons to a nuclear silo. and

5:16

this was really. Contradicting.

5:18

The the intent of the trains,

5:20

it was to surreptitiously to secretly

5:23

transport the material around the country

5:25

without raising a fuss. So the

5:27

the Nuclear Weapons Department while the

5:29

the Energy office obscure transportation started

5:31

to paint the trains a different

5:33

color. Hopefully he'll wouldn't catch on

5:35

by still easy to spot the

5:37

trains because they've got these big

5:39

turrets on them with machine gunners

5:41

Ns And so this is the

5:43

danger because what if for example,

5:45

some of the Soviets are. a

5:48

terrorist or somebody else was designs

5:50

on this material follows the protesters

5:52

uses them to locate the trains

5:54

attacks the train steals the material

5:57

or does the taxes to create

5:59

a nuclear disaster to set off a

6:01

bomb or a radiation leak or something like

6:03

that. So that is

6:05

where the Office of Secure Transportation

6:08

eventually in 1987 discontinued the use

6:10

of the white train to transport

6:12

this material around. And also by

6:14

the time you get to the late 80s and the early 90s, you

6:17

have the United States beginning to sign

6:19

non-proliferation treaties. You have some of the

6:21

missiles that have been built back in

6:24

the 50s or 60s. These

6:26

test technologies getting older, the missiles are

6:28

no longer usable because they're so old,

6:30

so they had to be decommissioned. So

6:34

now instead of trying to

6:36

take new nuclear missiles from Pantex in

6:38

the Texas Panhandle, getting them to silos,

6:40

they're trying to get the material from

6:43

silos, from warehouses, from secure storage facilities,

6:45

and transport them where they can be decommissioned,

6:47

where the nuclear waste can be disposed of,

6:49

you know, other things like that. And

6:52

so the decision was made in 1987 to

6:54

get rid of the white trains and

6:57

to use armored trucks, semi-trucks, to be

6:59

able to accomplish this. And

7:01

that works because by the time, I think about used

7:03

trains in the 50s or 60s, makes a lot of

7:05

sense. One, you have big materials to carry, but

7:07

two, the interstate highway system was still

7:10

in its infancy. But when

7:12

you get to the 80s and the 90s, now

7:14

you have a completed interstate highway system, easy

7:17

to transport this material, it's a

7:19

lot more flexible in transportation than

7:21

if you relied on railroads. It can

7:23

be done much more secretive this way

7:26

versus using a railroad. But there

7:28

are also other hazards

7:31

that don't arise with railroads. Now using trains,

7:33

you have derailments, but a lot of times

7:36

there's a derailment, the tracks might be nowhere

7:38

near a populated area. But

7:40

on the interstate, there's usually other cars

7:42

around, interstates will go through highly populated

7:44

areas. And sometimes trucks get

7:46

into accidents, like what if the truck were

7:49

to get in an accident and jackknife or

7:52

Tip over and the cargo

7:54

spilled radioactive materials or a

7:56

warhead. The worst case scenario,

7:58

warhead somehow detonated. Or something

8:00

like that. So. What? Do

8:02

you do any situation? So here are the

8:05

safeguards in this is out there. You: This

8:07

could happen. You can be on the freeway.

8:09

You see it. Just a semi. a plane.

8:11

A semi with government plates. With.

8:13

Other cars around it would

8:16

government plates, vans or Se.

8:18

These. And. Does right next

8:20

to your, the closest you'll ever be the

8:22

nuclear material and you don't even know it's

8:24

so. How does seats

8:26

security on the trucks work? The

8:28

Oversaw: The trucks are armored as

8:31

can be. They have twelve inch

8:33

thick steel doors are completely bullet

8:35

proof. You can't cut your way

8:37

through that. He would take a

8:39

ridiculous a long time to try

8:41

to cut through the material to

8:43

get inside of them. The trailers

8:45

that are whole by the semis

8:47

modified trailers are so well armored

8:49

an insulated. They can be in

8:51

a fire for one hour and

8:53

nothing will affect the temperature of

8:55

the contents. Inside of them. At least they're

8:57

not going to rise to a dangerous temperature,

8:59

but they can survive a fire for up

9:01

to an hour. Eyes As I said, you're

9:03

not going to be will get into them

9:06

even if you could get into the mercy

9:08

of a hijacker trying to seal the materials

9:10

and was just cut. Deaths cut the trailer

9:12

open didn't this and of course a trailer

9:14

has. More. Defend surrounded than

9:16

just the the truck and trailer. I'll

9:18

get to that zoom. Let's.

9:20

Say they somehow get into the truck

9:23

and want to get it's ah, the

9:25

truck and still with a foam that

9:27

will immobilize someone who's trying to get

9:29

the materials. They can also send electric

9:31

currents and shops through the truck to

9:34

stun and and capacity anyone who's trying

9:36

to steal the materials the farm also

9:38

works at. If the truck were to

9:40

be in an accident and tip over

9:42

on it's side, the foam would deploy

9:45

to prevent the material given extra close

9:47

and in ah, a high velocity incident

9:49

or an accident. But. the trucks are

9:51

so happy with their armor it would take

9:53

a ridiculous amount of force to up and

9:55

them odds are you probably would be old

9:57

yeah but as i did happen the phone

10:00

also act as a cushion in order to

10:02

do that. All right, well, plan

10:04

B, let's say you're a hijacker. You

10:06

wanna steal the material, you'll cut into

10:08

it later, you'll find a way to

10:11

deactivate the defense systems. Maybe you're just

10:13

gonna get the driver, incapacitate him, discut

10:15

the truck off, disassemble the trailer from

10:17

the truck, put it on a new

10:19

truck, you know, put it on something

10:22

else and just tow it away and deal

10:24

with the security systems later. Well,

10:27

the other counter

10:29

measure they have for that is that

10:31

the truck carries under its axles explosive

10:34

devices. So if necessary, those explosive devices

10:36

will destroy the wheels and the axles

10:38

on the truck. So if someone were

10:40

to try to tow it away, you

10:43

would just have this ridiculously heavy trailer that

10:45

you're dragging on the freeway through gravel and

10:48

dirt and it's not gonna go anywhere if

10:50

it doesn't have usable wheels or an axle.

10:53

So you have the ability to do that. Another interesting note

10:55

about counter measure explosives, in Switzerland,

10:57

all the bridges are wired with explosives.

10:59

If Switzerland had to hunker down in

11:01

bunkers in the Alps, they could do

11:04

that and you wouldn't be able to

11:06

get an army into Switzerland, they can

11:08

detonate the bridges to

11:12

prevent invasion of Switzerland. That's how they would

11:14

say neutral for so long, deal with all

11:16

this wars in Europe, figure well,

11:18

it might be good just to have this just

11:21

in case, remember that when the zombies

11:23

show up. So

11:25

along with the defense systems in the truck and

11:28

trailer itself, the fact is it's got about

11:30

five unmarked armored

11:32

SUVs flanking at

11:35

all times with agents inside that have

11:37

shotguns, they have assault weapons and there's

11:39

little holes inside the SUVs so they

11:41

can stick out a gun barrel and

11:44

they can fire on targets while staying

11:46

inside of a bulletproof car. And

11:48

so they're able to do that. One

11:50

of the security vehicles is always

11:53

ahead a few miles from the

11:55

others and this is important

11:57

because all of the transportation of nuclear

11:59

material. the Office of Secure Storage Transportation,

12:01

I should say, OST, operates

12:05

out of a facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

12:07

And that tracks the trucks and

12:10

the agents and coordinates

12:12

their movements. If there

12:14

were, so let's say, for example, you try

12:16

to attack this with the agents and flanking

12:18

around it, even if you were

12:20

to use an EMP to knock out their

12:23

vehicles and knock out their communications, so they

12:25

can't call in for help. If

12:27

you have another member of your team two miles

12:29

ahead, along with scouting out the road if there

12:31

are hazards, they can check back in. If they

12:33

can't radio anybody on the team

12:35

or the truck, they realize something has

12:37

gone wrong. They can send a message

12:39

to OST in Albuquerque to get

12:41

help and to see, hey, this is a serious

12:44

situation. We're going to need to have backup on

12:46

this. The office in Albuquerque

12:48

would then call in

12:50

FBI or local law, probably

12:52

local law enforcement first in the cities they're

12:54

traveling through. And they

12:57

would transmit a password

12:59

to the local

13:01

law enforcement that's going to show up to help the truck

13:04

if it is in trouble. That way,

13:06

the agents will be like, what's the password

13:08

to know that the law enforcement that show

13:10

up are just not other terrorists or something

13:12

to trick them to get out of their

13:14

their bulletproof vehicles and what they're doing. You

13:16

got to think ahead, right? You got to

13:19

think one step ahead

13:22

of the bad guys if you're

13:24

creating security and defense systems. So

13:27

that is how the process

13:29

works. And I just

13:32

think that it's, it's absolutely fascinating

13:34

how this entire thing has

13:36

been thought of. In the past 70

13:38

years, the program has been operating, no

13:40

nuclear material has been lost or stolen,

13:43

because as you can see, they

13:45

take it very, very seriously. Just

13:48

like I hope you take the Council of Trent

13:50

very seriously. Thank you guys for listening. By the

13:52

way, yeah, chance yet go and subscribe to us

13:54

on YouTube. We have a lot more episodes there.

13:56

We have full video content. I think you'll definitely

13:58

enjoy that. But thank you. guys. I hope

14:00

you have a very blessed weekend.