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Fire breaks out on nuclear ship
I saw this article on NewScientist.com, and thought I should pass it along.
Again, it is better to be forewarned than surprised.
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
3050 Traymore Lane
Bowie, MD 20715-2024
E-mail: jenday1@email.msn.com (H)
**************
Fire breaks out on nuclear ship
10:05 27 March 02
NewScientist.com news service
A ship which carries plutonium around Europe had to return to dock on Monday
after a fire broke out in its engine room.
The Atlantic Osprey, which belongs to the state-owned company British
Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), was travelling along the Manchester Ship Canal on its
way to sea when the fire started. There was no nuclear material on board.
The crew was unable to reach the flames with hand-held extinguishers, so
decided to evacuate the engine room and flood it with carbon dioxide. The
local fire brigade was called and, after two or three hours, fire fighters
re-entered the room and confirmed the fire was out.
"The vessel has since returned to the Manchester dry dock for a full
technical assessment to identify the root cause of the fire and also the
extent of the damage caused," a spokeswoman for BNFL told New Scientist.
Roll-on, roll-off
The Atlantic Osprey, which used to be called the Arneb, is a roll-on,
roll-off cargo ferry that has shipped reactor fuel containing plutonium
between Britain and Germany since 1996.
In four voyages during November and December last year, it carried 500
kilograms of plutonium from the Dounreay nuclear plant in Scotland to the
German port of Bremerhaven.
BNFL says the fire was "minor" and no-one was injured. But environmentalists
argue that the incident highlights the risk of a fire releasing plutonium,
which can cause cancer if inhaled.
"This time we were lucky," says Shaun Burnie from Greenpeace International.
"If this fire had taken place with a plutonium or nuclear waste cargo the
consequences could have been catastrophic."
Two other BNFL boats, the Pacific Pintail and the Pacific Teal, are due to
leave Britain in the next few weeks to bring back an unwanted cargo of
plutonium fuel from Japan. It was shipped there in 1999 but was rejected by
the Japanese reactor operator following a scandal over the falsification of
safety data.
Rob Edwards
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