Nuclear Radiation Alarm in Chicago

From a News Story on Local Fox News Channel, 6:30AM on Tuesday, October 19, 2004:

The Department of Energy has been called by City Officials who are concerned about a recent [doesn't say when, but assumed yesterday] event where a garbage truck coming back from a garbage run triggered nuclear/radiological alarm.

Apparently the garbage truck had a specific route to cover, and theoretically they're already scanning the route with hazmat teams, etc. On a side/unreleated note: it is bizarre that today, above my house, at 7:10AM, I saw no less than 3 helicopters above my neighborhood. They didn't appear to be news helicopters.

Anyone else in the local Chicago area verify this?

I got nothing currently....

Theres no need to panic though. The sensor could have been faulty or the garbage truck could have been carrying radioactive waste from hospitals or other medical centres.

Lets just wait and see what happens.

Interesting, have you checked the news to see if they've updated it? Local news would cover the story better than national news.

Do you know exactly what the truck was carrying?

Originally posted by NextLevel
From a News Story on Local Fox News Channel, 6:30AM on Tuesday, October 19, 2004:

The Department of Energy has been called by City Officials who are concerned about a recent [doesn't say when, but assumed yesterday] event where a garbage truck coming back from a garbage run triggered nuclear/radiological alarm.

Apparently the garbage truck had a specific route to cover, and theoretically they're already scanning the route with hazmat teams, etc. On a side/unreleated note: it is bizarre that today, above my house, at 7:10AM, I saw no less than 3 helicopters above my neighborhood. They didn't appear to be news helicopters.

Anyone else in the local Chicago area verify this?

I am on the northside of Chicago, havent heard anything about it.

As soon as I heard (I woke up immediately upon hearing this as my wife turns on the TV at 4:30AM!), I got on the internet and searched all of the local channels websites.

Found nothing. Even tried google news, nothing. This sucks. This could be a pretty large story.

Theres no need to panic though. The sensor could have been faulty or the garbage truck could have been carrying radioactive waste from hospitals or other medical centres.

Yeah, very true. However, they would have probably double-checked the truck, and done manual/hand scans before alerting the DOE. I doubt it was waste from a hospital, either, (although it is possible), because working at I one I realize that all of that waste is contracted out to a specific 3rd party for appropriate treatment and disposal.

The only other possibility is a batch of smoke detectors were probably smashed, disposed of or lost, and they ended up in the back of that garbage hauler. Americium is slightly (alpha and low energy gamma)radioactive [link on smoke detectors here].

But something had to be pretty strong to penetrate the 1/4" metal on the side of the truck to set those alarms off.

I'll go drop this badboy on some other websites and watch people bombard the station with phonecalls.

As far as I know... October Surprise is scheduled for Mon 25th. Bit early for terra

Originally posted by Nerdling
I'll go drop this badboy on some other websites and watch people bombard the station with phonecalls.

You know it. People would be so scared.

Update,

Saw this when I was reading the paper.


LINK

Nothing to worry about here:

A Chicago garbage truck that set off radioactivity alarms at a West Side transfer yard was carrying residential medical waste containing low levels of iodine, authorities said today.

Originally posted by deeprivergal
Interesting, have you checked the news to see if they've updated it? Local news would cover the story better than national news.

Do you know exactly what the truck was carrying?

i would guess....... garbage?

That's all it was? Iodine?

Man, those are some sensitive sensors if that's all it was.