Fire on vessel at Hamburg

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Summary

At Mai 1st, 2013 combined RoRo/container vessel Atlantic Cartier burned at the harbour of Hamburg (Germany). The fire was extinguished after about 16 h by 5 fire-fighting boats and 296 fire-fighters. Only 500 m from the burning ship the opening service of church days was held with 35000 participants in the heart of 1.800.000 citizens town. Nobody have been warned or evacuated, not been informed afterwards either.


Two weeks later an Answer from the federal state Government showed it was loaded with about 8.9t fissile Uraniumhexafluoride and 11.6t fissile Uraniumoxide or fuel rods beside 180t Ethanol, about 3,8t cartridges for Weapons 2,6t solid propellant and much more dangerous goods. The fire burned 70 new cars in the body of the ship, so some endangered Containers right on the top were cleared in hurry during fire-fighting operations. The UF6 came probably from USA with destination Uranium Enrichment facility Gronau (Ger), Fuel Rod-facility (Ger) or somewhere at the Netherlands Uranium Enrichment Facility Almelo (Netherlands) [1] . The Uraniumoxide was supposed to be delivered to France.

the story

This story happened Wednesday, May 1st, 2013, a public holiday. With tradition the union workers marched, somewhere else barbecueing people or Nazis try to march but have been blocked by Antifascists, struggle with police, burning barricades and cars, same procedure as every year. Additionally church days took place at Hamburg Harbour City, the heart of second largest city of Germany with population 1.800.000.


While opening service have been held with 35.000 participants 500m away a fire started to burn some 70 cars in the body of the 293m long and 33m wide combined RoRo- and container vessel. At 8:02 p.m fire fighting operation begun with 2 fire fighting ships and 3 tugs cooling the vessel's hull and 251 fire-fighters from land teams were engaged (including displacement 296) [2] . 44 minutes later they got the information about dangerous goods , including some 8.9t Uraniumhexafluoride (spokesman of interior ministry: 6.9Kg, carryover would be package) and 11.6t Uraniumoxide or fuel rods (info by UN-Number) beside tons of cartridges for weapons, propellant, ethanol and other explosive, toxic, flammable or corrosive load on board [3] .


They tried to clear the goods at risk, but due to the holiday they got no crane driver [4], so the clearing operation started not till 11:08 p.m. with a harbour- and a mobile crane. An other problem was the absence of unique effective extinguishing agent CO2 for the UF 6 , which was ordered by emergency booking but was out of stock in whole northern Germany. Rescue work of the containers ended at 3:35 a.m. at 2 nd May, at 5:11 a.m. the fire was under control and 11:41 a.m. extinguishing work was completed [5] .


Media reported only a fire on a vessel with dangerous goods. There was no specific warning or evacuation (which is impossible in such a big city). Two weeks later an Answer to a request on the Government released the information about radioactive material. The officials planned to put one fire-fighting boat off duty, maybe the reflect this plans now.


action!

Only 2 days after publication of the governments answer a planned MOX-fuel transport to Brokdorf NPP until Friday, May 24, 2013 became publicly. MOX fuel is a mix of Uranium- and Plutoniumoxide and is more unrulable as normal fuel rods are. Last of these transports to Grohnde NPP went along with huge protest, climbing and lock-on action.

One of the next events will be an anti-nuclear camp a few steps from uranium-enrichment-facility Gronau, fuel-rod-facility Lingen and other nuclear industry.


Background

Nuclear transport via Hamburg are no exception but nurmally about 2 times a week. The harbour is one of the most famous transfer sites in Germany, Uranium(products) from Russia, France, USA, Netherlands and the rest of the world is passing here. Some 500.000 packages with radioactive content are carried every year on german streets, seaways and with planes. About 10.000 of them are directly for nuclear power industry, leftover is used for measurement, medical or research purposes. [6]




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References

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