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Five Los Alamos Workers Exposed to Plutonium
Five workers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were placed under medical observation after being exposed to plutonium on Monday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported (see GSN, Dec. 22). The incident occurred two days before the announcement that the University of California would continue to lead the facility it has managed since the 1940s. The university was forced to compete for a new contract and take on several partners following a series of security and safety mishaps at the nuclear weapons research facility. Plutonium was found inside the noses of laboratory workers in building TA-55 after an alarm indicated that there had been a release of the material, the Chronicle reported. Four other employees working nearby were not contaminated, and the plutonium 239 did not enter the outside environment. The exposed workers have not become ill. “As a standard precaution, (they) are being monitored by the laboratory’s Occupational Medicine group,” said Los Alamos spokesman Kevin Roark. Plutonium 239 is used in nuclear weapons, and is particularly dangerous if it enters the lungs. There was no word yesterday whether the material had reached any of the workers’ lungs. Incoming Los Alamos chief Michael Anastasio said he had not heard about the incident. The new management team led by the university and Bechtel Corp. takes over on June 1, 2006. Anastasio pledged to take responsibility for any problems that occur afterward. “I’ll be responsible … absolutely,” he said. “The board of directors will oversee me and ensure that I’m doing the right thing in fulfilling our responsibilities under this contract,” said Anastasio, presently director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. “But they look to me to run the laboratory … and they will hold me accountable for my success or lack of success.” Also this week, the Energy Department levied a $192,5000 fine against a contractor after several workers suffered “a series of low-level plutonium uptakes” into their bodies from April to August 2004 at Lawrence Livermore, the Chronicle reported. “The violations reflected [Washington TRU Solutions’] limited understanding of the design and operational limitations of the MOVER facility, a portable waste processing facility designed to be transported to and operated at various DOE sites,” the agency said in a press release. “Two to three” company employees were exposed while preparing Lawrence Livermore plutonium waste to be shipped to a salt mine cave in New Mexico, said Washington TRU spokesman Jack Herrmann. The exposure level was “not at the level that is life-threatening,” he said. However, Washington TRU plans to continue to monitor the employees at least for “as long as they work” for the Carlsbad, N.M., company, he said. Washington TRU does not plan to appeal the fine, Herrmann said (Keay Davidson, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 23).
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