Ship with radioactive zinc dust stuck near Philippine port, official says
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MANILA – A ship with 23 containers of radioactive zinc dust is stuck off the coast in the Philippines, unable to unload because there is no site that has agreed to bury the material, according to a top official.
Port authorities are not allowing the ship, which arrived a few days ago from Indonesia, to unload in Manila unless there is a local government willing to take custody of the cargo for temporary storage or disposal, said Mr Carlo Arcilla, director of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, on Oct 28.
“These containers aren’t a danger to the public because there’s very little radiation outside the containers,” he added in a phone interview.
The ship crew are not sick, he noted.
Even so, the situation adds new complexity to the growing issue of radioactive materials found in various parts of South-east Asia.
An Indonesian investigation in September uncovered caesium-137 at a metal-processing hub that supplies materials for construction and manufacturing in a western Java industrial park.
Separately, it flagged the containers of zinc powder from the Philippines at a Jakarta port.
Indonesia in October halted imports of scrap metal.
Caesium-137 is an artificial radionuclide used in medical devices and gauges, and is one of the by-products of nuclear fission processes in reactors and weapons testing.
Exposure to the isotope can raise the risk of cancer, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
A probe was initiated after the US Food and Drug Administration in August reported the detection of trace amounts of the radioactive material in frozen shrimp shipments
The shipment now stuck off the coast in Manila contains zinc powder contaminated with caesium-137 that was exported to Indonesia
It was returned to Manila following the detection of caesium-137.
The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute official said the zinc dust was sourced from Philippine steelmaker SteelAsia Manufacturing and another steel firm, and that radioactivity was detected only at SteelAsia’s scrap recycling plant in Batangas province, south of the capital. Zinc dust has a wide range of industrial and chemical uses because it resists corrosion.
SteelAsia on Oct 25 said it rejected the nuclear agency’s order to take custody of the containers, saying it has no connection to the zinc powder and that the cargoes did not originate from it.
Nevertheless, the company, the Philippines’ top steelmaker, has voluntarily suspended operations at its plant out of caution.
The priority now, Mr Arcilla said, is to look for a site to dispose of or entomb the 23 containers and remove the radioactive materials in SteelAsia’s facility and Zannwann’s warehouse, which he added could be “substantial.”
Around 100 workers at both SteelAsia and Zannwann need to be screened for any possible contamination illnesses, he said.
There have been no incidents of radioactivity detected in previous Zannwann shipments to Indonesia, Mr Arcilla added.
He could not say whether the latest shipment from the Philippines is linked to the caesium-137 contamination in Indonesia. BLOOMBERG
