Canada's earliest nuclear projects will haunt landscape for centuries

[joshcryer]

Canada's earliest nuclear projects will haunt landscape for centuries
CHALK RIVER, Ont. — At 3:07 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 12, 1952, the National Research Experimental nuclear reactor, then the most powerful research reactor on Earth, raced out of control, rapidly overheated and then exploded, destroying the reactor core and spewing radioactive gases and debris into the atmosphere.

No one was hurt in the world’s first major nuclear accident, but it took hundreds of military personnel months to clean up the partial meltdown.

A flatbed truck used to haul the intensely radioactive core to a nearby burial site was manned by a relay team of drivers, each spending just a few minutes behind the wheel before running away to make room for the next driver, to limit their exposure to lethal radiation.

A portion of the road was buried as radioactive waste. Thousands of litres of radiotoxic water and other contaminated reactor wreckage were put in sandy trenches.

Much more at link.

[enough]

1. A long and interesting article with a lot of detail.

The last 4 paragraphs>

Under the current decommissioning scenario, Chalk River is to be deconstructed and cleaned by the year 2100.

“Ultimately, that’s what any restoration or decommissioning task is about, ensuring that we leave a reasonable legacy for the future generations,” says Miller.

Based on the residual decay of cesium-137 and strontium-90, the site is to be placed under “institutional control” for an additional 300 years, with selected parts possibly turned over for industrial reuse.

Monitoring and controls should end in the year 2400.

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[madokie]

2. You mean to tell me that the radioactive waste is dangerous?