Workplace accident at nuclear facility kills Manitoba man

A 46-year-old man was killed Thursday morning in a workplace accident at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., near Pinawa, Man.

Manitoba Mounties were tight-lipped Friday about the circumstances of the death, saying only that the man was from the rural municipality of Lac du Bonnet, and he was killed around 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

"He was an employee of AECL," RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Line Karpish said Friday. "Any details of his employment, or in what capacity I'm sorry, I won't be able to answer that."

The cause of death has not been released.

The RCMP is conducting a joint investigation into the accident with the federal Human Resources and Social Development Department.

AECL's Whiteshell laboratories, establishedat Pinawa in theearly 1960s, are in the process of being decommissioned.

When in service, the laboratories' operations included a research reactor and radioactive waste management areas. A used fuel storage facility on the site houses concrete canisters that provide dry storage for irradiated fuel bundles from the research reactor, according to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

The community of Pinawa, about 100 kilometres northeast of WinnIpeg,was mostly established by AECL to house research and support staff and their families. AECL is still the community's largest employer.

About 300 people work at the Whiteshell laboratories, according to AECL's website.