Year
1988
Abstract
A transportation tracking system has been developed by the Department of Energy (DOE) in response to three institutional concerns about shipments of large quantities of radioac- tive materials: routing, prenotification, and emergency response. This tracking system consists of a location system, a communication system with the carrier, and an information management system which appropriately dis- tributes shipment information to DOE head- quarters, field offices, and key state officials. The DOE prototype system developed for this purpose is called TRANSCOM. This paper pre- sents some of the tests that have been per- formed to demonstrate that LORAN-C is ac- ceptable as a location system for TRANSCOM, and that satellite communications techniques can provide timely results regarding location and communication with carrier vehicles. Three separate tracking tests have been performed to date: 3 177 location data points were recorded during a cross-country test from Savannah River, SC to Idaho Falls, ID via Albuquerque, NM; 802 data points were re- corded along the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha, NE to North Platte, NE; 4540 location data points, as well as 2636 satellite-transmit- ted locations and messages, were recorded on a trip from San Diego, CA; through Albuquerque, NM; Cheyenne, WY; Idaho Falls, ID; and back through Cheyenne to Chicago, IL.