Re: Accidents at sea

["J. J. Rozental" <josrozen@netmedia.net.il>]

RAM's ACCIDENT

The wreckage of the French cargo boat  Mont Louis in the North Sea on 25
August 1987, after a collision with a car ferry, entailed the immersion of
30 industrial packages consisting of cylinders each containing 12 tonnes of
Uranium Hexafluoride enriched to less than 1%. The cylinders withstood the
external aggressive   action of the sea, and as result there was no health
or pollution damage.
The recovery campaign was delicate and long because of the sea conditions
and the packages needed to be very carefully checked before going back to
Pierrelatte. In addition, checking of the environment required the
implementation of teams from the Commissariat a' l'Energie Atomique CEA.

Please contact CEA for more detail

Commissariat A' L'Energie Atomique
CEA-Communication Division
31-33, rue de la Federation - 75752 Paris Cedex 15
Tel : 33 1 40 56 10 00 - E-mail : dcom@portos.cea.fr


ABOUT Nuclear Vessel you can find some information in the following sites:

http://www.nitehawk.com/alleycat/nukes.html

http://wavecom.net/~rontini/accid.html

http://itri.loyola.edu/subsea/b_centra.htm

http://ds.dial.pipex.com/cndscot/trisaf/ch4.htm


What is your objectives in this project? -- Response or environmental and
monitoring?

J. J. Rozental
josrozen@netmedia.net.il
Israel



At 03:10 PM 12/16/98 -0600, you wrote:
>
>
>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
>________________________
>************************************************************************
>The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
>information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
>
>

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html