NOTE: The following article appeared in the Spring, 1992 edition of Dispatch. We are included it as part of our spotlight on response to nuclear incidents

SPRINGFIELD, MA- At about 3:15 A.M. on December 16, 1991, a driver, who was later charged with operating under the influence of alcohol, entered the northbound lane of Interstate 91 going the wrong way. He traveled four miles before his car crashed head on into a northbound tractor trailer. The vehicles careened off each other. The truck crashed into a concrete abutment and burst into flame.

The operators of the rig, Joseph Dunn and his wife, Janet, managed to extricate themselves and the shipping papers from the burning wreckage. Passing motorists had notified the Massachusetts State Police and several troopers were on the scene within seconds. Officer Joe Gura of the Springfield State Police Barracks was one of the first to arrive.

"I could see that the truck tractor was burning and that there were two people walking in the median strip." When Gura read the shipping papers he learned that the truck contained uranium dioxide. "I had hazmat training and I noticed that attached to the shipping papers was a page from the DOT Guidebook- Guide 63."

Uranium Dioxide
Uranium dioxide is not a product listed in the DOT Guidebook. Guide 63, however, reports that this is a radioactive material, the hazards of which vary greatly depending on the type and quantity of the material. In fact, the truck carried twelve containers, each with 850 pounds of uranium dioxide pellets.

Officer Gura saw that the DOT Guide recommended that people be kept at least 150 feet away upwind, so he began to divert traffic off the exit ramp. He was not unduly alarmed. "The truck driver did not seem in a panic and kept saying that the stuff wasn't that dangerous."

"As we came up on the scene a state trooper told us that it was radioactive material," said Kate Sullivan, paramedic with Commonwealth Ambulance."We were downwind at the time so we quickly moved up wind. Flames were shooting twenty or thirty feet in the air."

Lieutenant Dave Larson and the crew on Engine 7 were among the first Springfield Fire Department units on the scene. En route they learned from dispatch that a radioactive material was involved. Also trained as part of the fire department's hazmat team, Engine 7 staged off the highway with a building between it and the fire.

Police and fire fighters worked to isolate and control the area. I-91 was closed as well as I-291, a nearby spur. City streets under the highway were closed. The three major bridges that feed traffic from the western suburbs over the Connecticut River into the city had to be closed.

Captain Don Elliot of the Springfield Fire Department HazMat Team started checking the area with civil defense monitoring equipment. Elliot could get nothing above background radiation.

Hotel Command Post Since the Springfield Mobile Control Center happened to be out of service, the command post was situated in a nearby Sheraton Hotel-initially in the lobby and then in a conference room provided by the hotel. Without the command module, communications were somewhat of a problem.

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"As we came up on the scene a state trooper told us that it was radioactive material . . . Flames were shooting twenty or thirty feet in the air."

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The nuclear fuel truck had been on a trip from the GE plant in Wilmington, North Carolina, headed for the Vermont Yankee plant in Vernon, Vermont.

It was one of three million shipments of radioactive materials that take place in the United States each year. In 1990, according to DOT, there were 21 incidents involving radioactive shipments. These were accidents that resulted in suspected contamination, failure of packaging, or closing of transportation routes.

Whether to Fight the Fire
Hazmat team members and incident commander, District Chief Robert Pereira, discussed the pros and cons of fire suppression. Water could be used to put the fire out, but there might be danger of spreading radioactive water into sewers and the nearby Connecticut River.

The containment system for the nuclear fuel was what DOT regulations label Type A containers. Performance standards require that the containers withstand weather, impact, and temperatures of 1475 degrees F for up to thirty minutes. But the fire had burned longer than that. The truck's diesel fuel had been consumed as well as the wooden crates in which the fuel containers were packed. The truck bed itself was on fire.

According to Bob Leach of Vermont Yankee, "In the worst case scenario, if the containers had failed, there would have been ceramic fuel pellets spread out over the highway. The pellets wouldn't burn and there would have been no radioactivity released. In fact, the clean up crew would not even require protective clothing."

Lawrence Lidsky, a nuclear physicist at M.I.T., supports Leach's contention. "The material is radioactive," says Lidsky, "but innocuous."

Leach arrived on the scene at 5:30 a.m. The fire was still burning. Using a Geiger Mueller radiation detector, he surveyed the scene and found no trace of contamination. About 7 a.m. the fire had burned down enough that Leach was able to approach and extinguish the remaining flames using three dry chemical extinguishers.

Containers breached
At this point the containers could be more closely examined. Don Elliot could see that some of the containers had breached but there was no indication of leakage.

The fuel was allowed to cool for several hours and then Vermont Yankee crews began clean-up. At the same time, health physicists arrived and carried out a thorough monitoring of the scene.

Leach was impressed with how well the emergency response went. "The Springfield Local Emergency Planning Committee had a good plan and it was implemented effectively and professionally. Everyone knew who was in charge and what they were supposed to do."

The Springfield Fire Department HazMat Team collaborated with the Emergency Film Group in the production of PESTICIDES, one of the programs in the HazChem series of training videos.

The Dispatch is a publication of the Emergency Film Group. We welcome your questions and comments at info@efilmgroup.com