Idaho National Lab Accident: Plutonium Cladding Went Bad

and plutonium oxidized, turning into power. The cladding was made of stainless steel.

One worker tested positive for americium-241 in the lungs, which is taken as a sure sign that he has inhaled plutonium.

From CBS News (11/10/2011):

......

Early Tuesday afternoon, workers wearing lab coats and gloves but not respiratory gear were recovering the fuel so it could be shipped to a U.S. Department of Energy facility in an undisclosed state. The lab originally reported it was bound for Nevada but later retracted the statement.

Lab officials suspect the stainless steel cladding that surrounded the plutonium was damaged years ago, beginning a slow-but-steady process of plutonium oxidation that led to the exposure. When workers opened an aluminum box that housed the fuel plates and cut away plastic wrapping, they noticed several grains of powder that escaped.

"At that point, the job was suspended. The personnel exited the area," said Phil Breidenbach, nuclear operations director of the Materials and Fuel Complex, where the accident occurred.

"However, as they were exiting, a constant air monitor went off, indicating contamination had gotten into the air," he said. "When they exited the area to their prearranged safe zone, they started surveying the individuals and found contamination."

..... (full article at the link)

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17 Workers Exposed to Radiation from Plutonium in Idaho National Laboratory

No leak of radiation outside the facility, says the lab. Plutonium is from the spent fuel.

From Reuters (11/8/2011):

At least six workers were contaminated by low-level plutonium radiation and 11 others were exposed on Tuesday at a U.S. nuclear research lab in Idaho, but the public was not at risk, the government said.

The accident at the Idaho National Laboratory occurred inside a deactivated reactor housed in a facility used for remotely handling, processing and examining spent nuclear fuel, radioactive waste and other irradiated materials, the lab said in a series of statements.

The so-called Materials and Fuels Complex is located near the edge of the U.S. Energy Department's sprawling 890-square-mile laboratory site in the high desert in eastern Idaho about 38 miles from the city of Idaho Falls.

But lab bulletins on the mishap, believed to be the most serious accident at the site in at least four years, said there was no evidence of a release of radiation outside the facility, and "there is no risk to the public or environment."

A total of 17 technicians, all employees of lab contractor Battelle Energy Alliance, were working inside the decommissioned research reactor when "a container was opened for normal, scheduled work, resulting in low-level worker exposure to plutonium," the statements said.

There were no immediate details from the lab on the precise cause or nature of the radiation release, such as whether it resulted from an equipment malfunction or human error.

Lab spokesman Earl Johnson told Reuters the exposed workers were engaged in an activity and in an area that required no special protective shielding.

"We certainly didn't expect this to happen," he said, adding that radiation-control technicians monitoring the area detected the low-level release.

(The article continues.)

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