Accidents at sea

[Andrew McEwan <Andrew@nrl.moh.govt.nz>]

Brian Bailey wrote

"My present project requires research of ship accidents involving 
radioactive
materials.  Accustomed to shipments by truck or train, I am having 
difficulty
in
finding such references.  Can anyone help?"


Two accidents in which ships carrying radioactive material were lost were 
the Mont Louis in 1984 and MSC Carla in 1997. The Mont Louis carrying 350 
tonne of uranium hexafluoride of 1% enrichment in 30 flasks sank 15 km off 
Ostende after a collision with a ferry. The low specific activity cargo did 
not give rise to any radiological hazard and only one of the flasks was 
found in later recovery to be leaking. Salvage of the cargo was carried out 
for reasons such as the shallow depth (15 m) which made it necessary to 
clear the wreck from the shipping route, the economic value of the cargo, 
and the chemical toxicity. The cargo of the MSC Carla, which split in two in 
a storm, included three Type B packages loaded with a total of 330 TBq of 
Cs-137 in five sources. The sea depth in the region was 3000 m. In view of 
the depth, the expected corrosion of the sources and subsequent wide 
dispersion of the caesium chloride material, no salvage attempt was 
considered practical or justifiable.

Andrew McEwan

_________________________
Andrew C McEwan PhD
National Radiation Laboratory
PO Box 25-099
Christchurch, New Zealand

Ph 64 3 366 5059
Fax 64 3 366 1156
acmcewan@nrl.moh.govt.nz
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