June 8, 2012

CFB HALIFAX

Construction of a permanent radiation decontamination facility at CFB Halifax should be completed by the end of this month.

Construction on decontamination station at Halifax naval base nearing completion

DON PROCTER

correspondent

Construction of a permanent radiation decontamination facility will be completed this month at Canadian Forces Base Halifax.

Until now CFB Halifax’s nuclear emergency response team set up decontamination equipment in a temporary shower tent whenever nuclear powered ships or submarines from other countries docked at the jetty in Shearwater, Nova Scotia. The problem was that the temporary set up got in the way of military training operations.

The permanent building “is unusual, but it’s not complicated,” explains Michel Dubé, architect, project manager, National Defence, Maritime Forces Atlantic.

A 2,500 square foot concrete block structure, it has steel siding above the doors and a steel roof.

The $1 million, three-room building has a receiving room, a decontamination area with shower tent and a clean exit corridor

“It’s like a large garage with a tent inside,” says Dubé.

Water washed off contaminated persons drains into a bladder which is shipped to Chalk River Labs in Ontario for disposal.

In case the bladder breaks, the building is designed with a sloping floor to allow its contents to drain into a trench with a sump pump, he points out.

“We don’t want that water to run out the door.”

There has never been a nuclear mishap in Halifax Harbour.

Decontamination structures are anything but commonplace. Still, the architect says the design and construction of the building constructed into the side of a hill is straightforward.

General contractor for the project is Halifax-based Blunden Construction. The design consultant is AMEC.

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