The anecdotes that the Society for the Preservation of Canada’s Nuclear Heritage Inc. (SPCNHI) has collected, and continues to welcome, cover the period from the first days at Chalk River to the start of the 21st century. Michael Stephens forwarded this one about a small security lapse.
Ensuring security at CRNL has always been a major preoccupation. However sometimes, even when many precautions are in place, the unexpected can happen…
I used to car pool to work at the labs, and was located in an office in B456 in Controlled Area 1 down by the Ottawa River. One day I was walking the last few steps into B456 when a car pulled up beside me, the driver rolled down her window, and asked me (in French), “Is this the road to Montreal?” At that point she was facing the perimeter fence at the river and simply physically could drive no further forward. After I overcame my surprise, I said, “No, ma’am, you’re in the middle of a nuclear research site.” After her deep intake of breath, I asked her how she got there and I directed her on how to leave the site, which she did right away – and, I’ll bet, unchallenged. I emailed a report on the incident to Security, but never had a response. Security measures have changed radically since then, and I don’t think something like that is ever likely to be repeated.
From what she said, I pieced together what had happened. The incident occurred around 8:10 AM on the weekday that Ministry of Transport workers were installing the new stoplight at Plant Road on Highway #17. She was driving west on the highway coming from North Bay. When she got to Chalk River, she saw the usual morning queue of traffic stopped in the left-hand lane to turn down Plant Road to the labs. However, on that day because of the construction, there were orange construction signs and a flagman, too. She thought the line of traffic was being diverted onto a detour because of the work on the stoplight. She joined the queue and drove down Plant Road. When she got to the CRNL Outer Gate she just kept driving and like everybody else (who had a Security sticker on their windshield) she wasn’t challenged and carried on, oblivious to the fact she was entering the labs. Similarly, she drove in the queue of traffic straight through the Inner Gate unchallenged, down to the parking lots where the row of Quonset huts used to be near the river. To make things worse, by chance lab staff were doing construction work in that area, so there were more orange construction and caution signs – which of course simply confirmed to her that she was still on the detour route. She only stopped when she ran out of road and hailed a passerby – me – for help.
