Trace amounts of plutonium were potentially washed into Boulder’s wastewater system from two different sinks at the National Institute of Standards and Technology following a plutonium leak there on June 9, federal and Boulder city officials said today.
NSIT became aware that trace amounts of the plutonium may have been washed into Boulder’s system early last week after two people involved with the plutonium spill washed their hands in a men’s washroom.
The washroom was just feet from the laboratory where a vial containing one-quarter gram of plutonium-containing powder cracked and particles spilled from the vial.
NIST spokesperson Gail Porter said that NIST radiation experts found trace contamination of the sink in the men’s restroom.
Then over the weekend, NIST radiation safety experts were able to re-enter the sealed laboratory for the first time. There they discovered that a sink in the laboratory had also been contaminated, said Porter.
Investigators discovered that a researcher who worked directly with the plutonium sample – one of the men who also had washed his hands in the restroom – had used the laboratory sink to wash his hands during the incident.
“There is a reasonable assumption that the contamination could have gone down the sink,” said Porter.
Porter said today that NIST doesn’t know the exact amount of plutonium that may have washed down the drain from the laboratory sink. But she added that NIST is conducting studies to better estimate the amount of radiation discharged.
Porter said she didn’t know if the employees had followed proper procedure by washing their hands in the sinks.
Porter and Laura Ost, another NIST spokesperson, said that NIST health physicists detected contamination in the laboratory on the floor, various tabletops and surfaces consistent with the spread by hands and shoes.
Porter emphasized that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been notified and that members of the Department of Energy Radiological Assistance Program have arrived to help assess the contamination and cleanup.
The leak of the plutonium has upset Colorado legislators.
U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, said today that he was “deeply troubled” to learn that the contamination may have ended up in Boulder’s sanitary sewer system.
“NIST has assured me and local officials that public safety has not been compromised, but the agency has considerable explaining to do about how a material as dangerous as plutonium could accidentally be released into a laboratory sink,” said Udall. “I have asked NIST for an accounting of what exactly happened and why at least one NIST employee did not follow established safety procedures.”
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, in a letter to Dr. James Turner, NIST’s acting director, pointed to the plutonium spill at the NIST Boulder facility as “grounds for a thorough review of the laboratory’s safety programs, particularly those dealing with radioactive materials.”
At the time of the incident, a small plutonium sample — smaller than a dime in size — was being used in a research project to develop improved radiation detectors for use by nuclear inspectors outside NIST, said Porter.
The main health risk from plutonium occurs through inhalation or ingestion.
Maureen Rait, Boulder’s director of public works and acting interim city manager, said Wednesday that Boulder officials have found no adverse effects from the potential plutonium release into the Boulder wastewater system.
She said NIST has briefed city officials four times, the first time on June 10, the day after the vial cracked.
Rait said that extensive monitoring at the city’s waste water plant and of Boulder Creek — where discharge of the treated water goes — shows that no employees or aquatic life have been affected.
“We don’t believe there is any threat to businesses and homes,” said Rait. “There is no reason to be concerned.”
“Preliminary information provided to the city by NIST indicates the potential plutonium levels released into the sanitary sewer system were well below federal and state pollutant limitations for wastewater,” the city said late Wednesday.
Rait said that high runoffs from the spring snow melt would have quickly diluted the “very low levels” of plutonium.
The city of Boulder is continuing to monitor the water and the situation in conjunction with the Colorado Department of Health and Environment and the Boulder City Health Department, Rait added.
After the original incident on June 9, 22 NIST staff and associates who had been working in or near the lab were asked to remain in the immediate area until they could be monitored for any radioactive materials on their clothing and bodies removed.
The laboratory room and an adjacent lab in NIST’s Building One were immediately sealed off.
Four days later, on Friday, June 13, NIST officials said that additional trace amounts of contamination were found in the office and a nearby stairway used by a laboratory researcher who had been exposed.
The office is in a different hallway than the original laboratory room where the incident occurred. The survey showed trace amounts of contamination on one desk, a lab notebook on the desk, and the chair associated with the desk, which had been used by the researcher.
Turner, the NIST deputy director, said that the agency has asked for additional help from other federal agencies and outside experts “because we want to be sure that we fully understand how this incident occurred. We want to make sure we clean up the contamination properly and we want to know if there are any improvements we can make in our safety program.”
Kenneth C. Rogers, former commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1987 to 1997, has agreed to assist NIST into an investigation of the causes of the June 9 incident and to evaluate the effectiveness of NIST’s actions in responding to the the event.
NIST said the experts will make site visits to NIST in both Boulder and Gaithersburg, Md.
“They will conduct interviews and gather facts, receive access to NIST data and information on the incident, and then inform NIST of their findings,” said Ost. “the information provided by these experts will be used by NIST to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
