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Fire Chief questions radiation readings at North Bay Landfill

'They will be coming in and doing their own surveys again to see the amount of radiation'
landfill-radioactive 2017
This bin set off radioactive alarms. Photo supplied.

North Bay Fire Department officials say a specialized company that deals with radioactive materials is expected to be in North Bay on Tuesday to remove and dispose of materials that were found in a bin at the North Bay Landfill last Friday.  

See that story:  Radiation scare at area landfill

“They will be coming in and doing their own surveys again to see the amount of radiation,” said North Bay Fire Chief Jason Whiteley.  

“They will be unpacking the whole shipping container and they will properly pack up the radioactive material and take it on site to the proper disposal area.”  

North Bay Fire was contacted by the duty officer from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to investigate a report of a very significant radiation reading from a bin at the North Bay Landfill Friday night.  

But the initial radiation reading was much higher than when it was tested a second time.   

“So they initially reported there were 700 RAD’s coming off the container and they turned around and shipped it back to the dump and that’s when Canadian Nuclear Safety contacted us and they do an assessment and try to mitigate what was going on there,” explained Whiteley.  

The Fire Chief believes there was some sort of miscommunication.  

“We did an assessment and we detected a much lower rate but that initial detection put everybody at a high alert. About 1000 RAD’s in a certain amount of time is considered lethal,” he said.  

“We really wanted to figure out what we are dealing with and we figured out we were dealing with a gamma radiation and how much radiation was coming off of it and if there were people at the landfill that were exposed and how are we going to contain this and make the area safe and stuff like that, while maintaining the safety of our responders as well.”  

Whitely says this is a very unusual call for area firefighters but one that is part of the North Bay Fire Department’s responsibility as they are considered a level 2 hazmat team.


Chris Dawson

About the Author: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson has been with BayToday.ca since 2004. He has provided up-to-the-minute sports coverage and has become a key member of the BayToday news team.
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