Contamination found out of state (Los Alamos accident)

[struggle4progress]

ROGER SNODGRASS, [e-mail], Monitor Assistant Editor

<snip> A lab report updated July 29, revealed that the lab worker who was contaminated by americium-241 in mid-July made an ordinary Federal Express shipment of weld test samples he was working on to Bechtel Bettis Inc., a DOE laboratory in West Mifflin, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Penn. <snip>

The source of the americium-241 contamination had not been determined at the July 29 update of the occurrence report, and identifying the source is still one of the subjects of the investigation, Delucas said. <snip>

David Chen, a radiation biologist and director for the molecular radiological biology group at UT Southwestern in Dallas, noted that the alpha particle radiation of americium-241 was not strong enough to penetrate through the dead skin of the employee's thumb, for example, but might pose a more serious problem if it contacted sensitive areas of the nose or eyes.

"The problem is we really don't know the low-dose effect," Chen said, a former group leader at LANL, "That's why the Department of Energy has a low-dose program," researching the question. <snip>

http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2005/08/09/headline_news/news03.txt


<edit>: Nuclear contamination found in four states

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Mishandling of a radioactive substance by a Los Alamos National Laboratory worker has reportedly resulted in contamination in four states.

Traces of the substance have been found in homes in Colorado and Kansas that the unidentified employee visited, at his New Mexico home, and at the Pennsylvania laboratory where he apparently shipped a contaminated package, The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.

The worker and five of his colleagues who might have been contaminated by the substance -- radioactive americium-241 -- were being monitored by doctors at Los Alamos, which is operated by the University of California. As of Monday none show ill effects, lab officials told the newspaper.

Although the university reported the incident last month in a news release, the Washington-based Project on Government Oversight. <snip>

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20050809-16494800-bc-us-losalamos.xml