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Radioactive Fluid Splashes Workers at Y-12 Plant
Radioactive fluid spilled on to two workers in separate August incidents at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported today (see GSN, June 13). The personnel were decontaminated and remain under medical supervision, but they “face little health risk from the contamination,” said Bill Wilburn, spokesman for site operators BWX Technologies. Wilburn described an Aug. 14 incident in which personnel tested a valve following maintenance work at the plant’s “As part of the test, an equipment pump was switched on to check for leaks,” he said in an e-mail statement. “Upon turning on the pump, uranium-contaminated liquid sprayed through a drain valve that was slightly open on to the upper leg of an engineer who was observing the test.” The radioactive liquid soaked through the engineer’s clothing, reaching his upper leg. “The employee was taken to Y-12’s on-site medical facilities and decontaminated,” Wilburn said, adding that eight other workers present at the spill are also being evaluated for exposure. In an Aug. 16 incident in the same building, a worker dropped a bottle holding liquid enriched uranium, causing the material to splash on to the person’s shoulder through an opening in protective gear. An investigation of the two accidents is being conducted to “determine what kinds of corrective actions need to be taken,” Wilburn said. “These were the first incidents of personal skin contamination in nearly four years,’ he said (Frank Munger, Knoxville News Sentinel, Sept. 6).
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