Low-level radioactive waste that was being carried in a railcar that caught fire in June near Chicago is now being transported by truck to Tennessee, according to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA).
Transport of 42 intermodal containers started last week and is expected to wrap up this week, IEMA spokeswoman Rebecca Clark said by email Monday. The material is going to Oak Ridge, Tenn. Clark referred further questions to the Department of Energy, which operates the Oak Ridge Site in the region.
A spokesman for Veolia subsidiary Alaron Nuclear Services, which generated the waste, was working on an update at deadline Tuesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
The waste was originally being carried by train from Pennsylvania to Waste Control Specialists’ low-level waste disposal facility in Andrews County, Texas. It encompassed about 138,000 pounds of contaminated dry-activity waste and metal debris from Alaron recycling operations.
The railcar was found burning in the early hours of June 4 at a train switching facility in Bedford Park, Ill., roughly 20 miles outside of Chicago. About 10% of the railcar burned before the fire burned itself out, and no radioactive contamination is believed to have escaped, according to an IEMA report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
A second railcar also carrying waste from Alaron was not damaged.
The Federal Railroad Administration is investigating the incident. The status of the probe was not immediately available as of Tuesday morning.
“The material was removed from the railcar and packaged with sand to mitigate any further fire hazard,” Clark wrote. The 42 intermodal containers were all inspected by the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
