What is it??

A free gCaptain t-shirt goes out to the first person who can correctly identify this cargo.

UPDATE:

We have a winner. Charlie of Sea Wolf Engineering correctly identified the cargo as nuclear fuel casks. The owner of the ship, Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd tells us:

The special packages in which PNTL transports nuclear material are called “flasks” or “casks”. They are typically made from 25 cm thick forged steel and weigh around 100 tonnes. They can hold up to five tonnes of nuclear material.

The casks facilitate the movement of nuclear material by different modes of transport, protect workers from radiation, dissipate heat efficiently and are designed to withstand severe accidents.

BNFL Cask Maintenance Facility
Casks are monitored for radiation prior to loading onto PNTL ships and during transportation. They are thoroughly cleaned and inspected in maintenance facilities after each shipment.

Cask lids can only be attached and removed using specialist equipment at nuclear facilities.

The casks transported by PNTL belong to customers. Each cask design has to meet safety requirements established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in order to be licensed by national regulatory bodies.

Click HERE to find out more and HERE for video of these interesting nuvlear transport ships.



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About The Author

John Konrad

Captain John Konrad is co-founder of Unofficial Networks, Editor In Chief of this blog and author of the book Fire On The Horizon. He is a USCG licensed Master Mariner of Unlimited Tonnage and, since graduating from SUNY Maritime College, has sailed a variety of ships from ports around the world. John currently lives in Morro Bay, California with his wife and two children.



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