Transportation of radioactive material by rail: special train issue

The shipment of radioactive material by rail has been the subject of intense legal maneuvers. The railroads, responding to a perceived safety issue, wanted to require a separate contract for each shipment of nuclear material which, in many cases, would require special train service. The nuclear industry and government opposed this position as being unnecessarily expensive and not contributing significantly to the safety of nuclear material transport. The Supreme Court upheld earlier lower court and Interstate Commerce Commission rulings which held that the railroads had to act in the capacity of common carriers of nuclear materials and that they could not require a separate contract for each nuclear material shipment