Fission for answers in nuclear trucking mishap

OTTAWA — Sure, if you wanted bigger margins, you could always try hauling nukes.

Of course, there’s also considerable risk. Hence the big bucks.

If you’d like to get a peek into what happens when something goes wrong in that end of the business, mark the following date in your calendar: Thursday, Aug. 27.

That morning, log on to http://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng and watch as the people responsible for nuclear-trucking regulations conduct a live post mortem into a little incident that happened near Edmonton last year.

Two truckers got zapped (well, by Canadian nuclear standards anyway) when the radioactive load they were carrying shifted in their truck and exposed them to a potentially harmful dose of radiation.

The official enquiry into the alleged accident takes place in Port Hope, Ont., Thursday, courtesy of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. (CNSC). And they’re broadcasting it live, on the net. 

We don’t know who the drivers are or what happened to them  but if early evidence is anything to go by, the load, which they picked up in Edmonton, triggered a radiation alarm when the truckers pulled into an MDS Nordion office in Ottawa. 

According to media reports, the CNSC traced the problem to a worker at Nomad Inspection Services of Olds, Alta., who supposedly didn’t fasten a safety lock to a radioactive device before it was packaged and shipped.

The radioactive device had shifted from its shielded to unshielded position en route exposing the drivers to radiation.

MDS Nordion stated the two drivers could have been exposed to a dose of radiation that is above the limit for members of the public.

The commission guessed that the drivers’ dose was about 1.36 millisieverts and while probably not too harmful (there were no reports of the drivers growing any extra limbs, anyway) the legal limit for people who aren’t nuclear power workers or medical personnel is one millisievert over a full year.