Radium Gilbert

The Radium Gilbert was a tugboat built for transporting supplies to, and ore from, the radium and uranium mines in Canada's Northwest Territories.[1] Like the other tugs in the Radium Line she was steel-hulled.

Radium Gilbert moored in Port Radium, in 1947.

She was named after Gilbert Labine, the prospector who discovered radioactive ore where Port Radium was built.[2] She was built in Vancouver, in 1946 disassembled, so she could be shipped by rail to Waterways, Alberta.[2] Like all vessels assembled in Waterways that operated on the Mackenzie River, and its tributaries, after she was reassembled she first proceeded downstream to Lake Athabasca, and down the Slave River, to the portage at Fort Smith. Large tractors towed even large cargo overland around large rapids there.

The Radium Gilbert spent her operational life 1946 to 1980 on Great Bear Lake.[3]

She ran aground near Deline, the small community at the outlet for Great Bear Lake.[4] Her wreck remained radioactive decades after she was used to ship radioactive ore.

She was dismantled, and removed, in 2003, after lying grounded, for decades.[1][5] By that time the population of Deline understood the toxic legacy of the trade in radioactive ore, and the nearby wreck was a painful reminder.

In 2005 Atomic Energy of Canada published a study of the toxic legacy of the mining of radioactive ore at Port Radium.[6] According to the report all the other surviving vessels of the Radium line were found to be free of contamination. But the Radium Gilbert was significantly contaminated—particularly her showers.[7]

References
  1. "If only we had known: the history of Port Radium as told by the Sahtúot'ine". Deline Uranium Team. 2005. ISBN 9780973772708. Retrieved 2017-11-23. The Radium Gilbert, one of the ore carrying boats stood grounded a few kilometres from Deline for decades.
  2. Volume 64 of Transactions of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and of the Mining Society of Nova Scotia, Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Transactions of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. 1961. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  3. Gurcharan Singh Bhatia, ed. (2000). Peace, Justice and Freedom: Human Rights Chexallenges for the New Millennium. University of Alberta. pp. 111–112. ISBN 9780888643391. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  4. Julie Salverson (2011-08-12). "They Never Told Us These Things". Maisoneuve. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  5. "Uranium ship finally leaving Northwest Territories". CBC News. 2005-02-18. Retrieved 2018-01-12. For decades, the Radium Gilbert sat along the shore of Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories, an unpleasant reminder of what came out of the El Dorado uranium mine.
  6. "Status Report for the Historic Northern Transportation Route redacted colour" (PDF). Atomic Energy of Canada. December 2005. p. 88. Retrieved 2018-01-13. Ships were used along the NTR to move barges loaded with uranium ore and concentrates (among other materials and supplies). Some vessels also transported cargo on board. Fifteen Radium Series vessels used along the NTR were identified in SENES (1994). Three were determined to have been scrapped, and the disposition of one, the Radium Cruiser, was unknown. Radiological investigations were conducted on the other eleven vessels. Only one, the Radium Gilbert, showed any evidence of contamination.
  7. Peter C. Van Wyck (2010). Highway of the Atom. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-77358-087-9. Retrieved 2018-01-13. There is material leakage all along the sides of the Highway, as well as on the vessels and barges used to traverse it. The merchant fleet Radium line: the Radium King, the Radium Queen, the Radium Lad, the Radium Express, and of course, the Radium Gilbert ... and so on. The rest of the list: Cruiser, Prince, Gilbert, Charles, Scout, Yellowknife, Franklin, Dew, Prospector, Trader, Miner.
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