Upgrading TRANSCOM: A Tracking and Communications System for Radioactive Material Shipments

The U.S. Department ofEnergy (DOE) has developed a transportation tracking and communications system that is used for selected unclassified radioactive and hazardous materials shipments (Boes 1994). This satellite-based system is the Transportation Tracking and Communications (TRANSCOM) System, which has been in operation since 1989. Since its inception, the TRANSCOM System has tracked over 500 shipments for DOE. The mission of the TRANSCOM System is to provide tracking and communications for shipments of radioactive materials, hazardous materials, and other high-visibility shipping campaigns, as specified by DOE. The TRANSCOM System is managed and operated at the TRANSCOM Control Center (TCC) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for DOE's Office of Transportation, Emergency Management, and Analytical Services. The TRANSCOM System provides the TCC staff, shippers, carriers, receivers, and State, Tribal, and Federal users with the ability to view information about shipments and communicate with each other during shipment tracking. Information about the shipment contents, points of contact, routes, status, locations, and emergency response information is available to each user. The information is displayed in tabular and graphical form using a series of national, state, and county maps. The TRANSCOM System has a client-server architecture. The server is a UNIX'\"\"-based system that stores the information for each shipment in a central data base and controls all TRANSCOM activities and communications. Four versions of the DOS client system have been developed. The TCC version allows TCC operators to view all shipments, add information to the database, and send messages to any users on the system .