A transportation provider for the cleanup contractor at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee was involved a January fender-bender while moving low-level radioactive waste along a highway in Arkansas.
No injuries resulted and no radioactive soil spilled in the accident, according to a Feb.7 DOE accident report.
The unidentified subcontractor hired by URS/CH2M Hill Oak Ridge (UCOR) was rear-ended by another truck during a Jan. 17 traffic backup in the left lane of Interstate 40 near Mile Marker 202 in Arkansas. The truck at the time was carrying four B-25 boxes of low-level waste (LLW) soil to the Nevada National Security Site.
A wrecker truck towed the subcontractor’s trailer, with the boxes, to the tow company’s facility, which has a security fence and is equipped with security cameras for continuous surveillance, according to the DOE report.
The next day, a mechanic determined the trailer could not be repaired easily. The boxes were subsequently moved to another trailer provided by the subcontractor. The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) conducted radiological surveys on the LLW boxes and found them apparently undamaged, with all dose rates at background levels.
The document did not specify how much soil was in the boxes or when the material arrived in Nevada.
