(521.5116) WISE Amsterdam - On October 9, a truck loaded with 900 smoke detectors, containing americium-241, and highly flammable stuff caught fire on a highway in eastern France. The French nuclear safety agency DSIN and radiation protection agency OPRI were not told the truck was shipping nuclear material until four days after the accident. The activity of one smoke detector was too low to be covered by nuclear material transport regulations, but 900 aren't! The truck also was not marked with the standard radioactivity sign. DSIN chief Lacoste said the accident revealed loopholes in the nuclear transport regulations.
Total radioactivity of the 900 smoke detectors was some 4 megabequerel (MBq). About 40 people (police, firemen, highway service personnel) were identified as potentially contamina- ted. Urine sample are being analyzed. OPRI director Pasquier said the potential radiation doses would not cause acute effects, but an increase in their long-term cancer risks could not be ruled out. Americium is an alfa emitter and is highly radioactive. The ground around the accident was decontaminated by scraping.
Source: Nucleonics Week, 28 October 1999
Contact: Criirad, 471 Av. Victor Hugo, 26000 Valence, France.
Tel: +33-475-418250
Fax: +33-475-812648
E-mail: crii.rad@wanadoo.fr
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