Nukewatch Quarterly Spring 2016
A semi-truck carrying a trailer filled with 63 drums of uranium concentrate (known as powdered, or “yellowcake” uranium) across Canada spilled part of its load during a highway crash January 11. The accident happened about six miles north of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, on Highway 4. Heathgate Resources of Australia is the owner of the uranium, which was being transported on a truck and trailer owned by RSB Logistics to a Cameco refinery in Blind River, Ontario. The barrels will now be returned to a facility in northern Saskatchewan for repackaging before continuing to the refinery.
The Swift Current fire department, which responded first to the scene, reported a small crack in the shipping container carrying the uranium. Residents within a one-mile radius were notified of the spill but none were evacuated, reportedly because none of their homes were downwind from the accident. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission declared cleanup of the site complete as of January 13; government officials said they found no radioactive product remaining in the area.
—Canadian Press, Jan. 11; Leader-Post (Regina, SK), Jan. 12; CBC News, Jan. 13, 2016
Leave a Reply