An explosive situation: Police to dispose of unstable chemicals at U of R

Members of the Regina Police Service’s bomb squad are slated to be at the University of Regina on Friday — at the school’s request.

In a media release Thursday, the university said a recent chemical inventory check in various science labs found bottles of older chemicals that had “degraded to a point where they pose a potential explosive hazard if disturbed.”

The labs in question are in the Research and Innovation Centre (RIC) and the Lab Building.

The university called the RPS’s explosives/chemical disposal experts and subsequently cordoned off the labs. On Friday morning, the RPS experts are to remove the chemicals and get rid of them.

“Safe disposal of these chemicals will require the use of controlled detonation in a remote, unpopulated area of campus,” the university’s release read. “This may result in loud noises, audible for some distance.”

The school said members of the university community and the public should avoid the campus Friday. Buildings, roads and parking lots are to be closed temporarily while the chemicals are taken out and destroyed.