Radioactive Leak At Halifax Shipping Yard; Hazmat Team On Site

[applegrove]

Source: CTV News (Canada)

A container carrying a radioactive material used in the uranium enrichment process leaked at a Halifax shipping yard late Thursday, after falling more than 15 metres from a crane onto the deck below.

Emergency officials and a hazardous materials team were on the scene at the shipping yard after the container carrying uranium hexafluoride fell.

The material is used in the production of fuel for nuclear reactors and and weapons.

Fire officials told CTV News they are treating the situation as a radioactive leak.

Officials said radiation levels around the unit are higher than normal.




Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/radioactive-leak-at-halifax-shipping-yard-hazmat-team-on-site-1.1728685

[Wilms]

1. Link Repair

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/radioactive-leak-at-halifax-shipping-yard-hazmat-team-on-site-1.1728685

Scary story.

[applegrove]

2. Thanks. Fixed it.

[mindwalker_i]

3. Grab some hot dogs!

And let's become superheroes.

[applegrove]

4. I don't think it is funny. I lived in Halifax. I know the two container terminals.

Both of them are right around many homes. I didn't know so much uranium was being imported in Halifax. And now terrorists know it. Shocking all around.

[Voice for Peace]

5. I also lived there! many many years ago..

would never have thought of uranium and halifax in the same sentence.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. That port has a history of dangerous cargoes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion

[Voice for Peace]

7. have never heard of this before,

holy crap
thanks!

[AtheistCrusader]

8. For its time, it was just an incredible disaster.

And so sudden. No warning really.

[Voice for Peace]

9. and a tsunami, to boot.. and so many people, just yikes nt

[applegrove]

10. And a snowstorm in the hours and days afterward that covered all the wounded with frozen snow and

killed many more. My grandmother was at school in the south end of Halifax at the time....many miles away and was in assembly singing. The windows blew out of the school. The huge iron anchor of one of the ships flew right over the whole city.

[Voice for Peace]

11. yow

[likesmountains 52]

15. Curse of the Narrows is an excellent book about that disaster.

I have never been to Halifax, and don't know much about shipping etc., but the book was really fascinating.

[Sunlei]

12. uranium hexafluoride reacts violently with water and is highly toxic. Shouldn't be "falling off

forklifts"

Uranium hexafluoride http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_hexafluoride

[applegrove]

13. Fortunately they said there was no leak in the end.

[Sunlei]

14. No leak?, the reported "higher than normal" radiation levels should still be a concern.

[hunter]

16. The USA has about 700,000 tons of this stuff sitting around in various places.

Some of it in leaky containers.



It's as scary as a heavy metal toxin as it is for its radioactivity.

[applegrove]

17. Update

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/radiation-levels-watched-at-halifax-ship-terminal-after-scare-1.2572311