Canada has issued a tender to build a permanent nuclear decontamination centre at the Canadian Forces Base (CFB) in Shearwater, Nova Scotia on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour.
The C$1m, 250m² building will stock the various decontamination materials required whenever a nuclear-powered vessel visits Halifax and ties up at CFB Shearwater, according to CBC News.
CFB Halifax commander Captain Brian Santarpia said the US nuclear-powered vessels visit Halifax between five and six times a year.
“We’re building a decontamination shelter here to do the work we have been doing for a long time, to be ready in case there’s an accident on a visiting nuclear vessel,” Santarpia added.
“If they needed medical aid we would have a team of people to pick up their casualties and we would move them along here and in through the decontamination before moving them off to a hospital.”
The construction contract will be awarded this year and the centre is expected to be complete by February 2012.
