Workers got huge doses of radiation

[SaintLouisBlues]

Cold War-era nuclear workers at Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. in
St. Louis received doses of radiation up to 2,400 times those
considered acceptable today, according to an unprecedented
government report.

As high as that level is, incomplete data means that actual
exposure levels at the defunct nuclear fuel facility north of
downtown may have been even worse.

Dusty, sloppy and hazardous conditions were routine at
Mallinckrodt's uranium-processing plant, which operated from
1942 to 1957, according to a report presented at a meeting in
St. Louis on Wednesday. One section describes a worker
scooping uranium by hand with a piece of cardboard because
mechanized equipment had failed.

"I would characterize this as a pretty messy operation," said
Jim Neton, a health physicist with the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health, which ordered the report as
part of a federal nuclear workers' compensation program.

http://tinyurl.com/t1ia

From the story I remember, old man Mallinckrodt was considered very patriotic, and when the government
was looking for someone to process uranium for the first reactor at the University of Chicago
he stepped-up, although no one knew how to do it. Today, there are many contaminated sites around town from Manhattan Project uranium production.

Today Mallinkcrodt (Tyco) makes radioactive medical dye here in St. Louis. People I know who work there
can no longer stand the place since Tyco took over. Their 401K's were heavy on Tyco when their criminal
behavior became public and the stock nose-dived.

[gWbush is Mabus]

1. or, as *'s Scientific Advisory Panel puts it..."they're all fine".

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. I'm sure Zell Miller will defend the radiation of people!!!!

...just like he supports everything else right wing!

[MadHound]

3. This isn't suprising

Coming from a company that builds NRC fines into it's budget. Not suprising, but still disgusting.

[Dr Satan]

4. wow

that is crazy.

[range78]

5. Any thing to do with the government and radiation

is usually tied to some kind of screw up or cover up. I just finished taking a medical exam because I worked on Amchitka Island, AK almost 30 years ago, I worked for the fish and wildlife service on the island after the then Atomic Energy Commission was through blowing up what they could. We asked for radiation badges and were told that none of the underground blast were leaking, seems that may have not been true.