Plutonium was detected in about half of the 29 people who were near a June 9 plutonium spill at the Boulder campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, agency officials said today.
But none of the employees who received internal exposure is expected to experience any clinically significant health impacts, said Laura Ost, NIST spokeswoman.
Previously, NIST said a “small number of personnel” were exposed.
The latest testing used — thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) — was performed by Los Alamos National Laboratory, part of the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration.
Edward Cetaruk, a toxicologist with the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, said the extremely sensitive TIMS tests confirm earlier testing results that showed low levels of exposure.
The TIMS results for six additional people whose samples were received later than the 29 are expected in about a month, according to NIST.
Cetaruk said he doesn’t foresee any significant impact on the health of the additional individuals.
NIST Deputy Director James Turner said he was heartened by the news.
“We hope having these definitive tests confirm that there are no significant health effects expected will reassure those affected and their families,” said Turner. “Nevertheless, we continue to regret that any exposures occurred. Meanwhile, we are aggressively moving to strengthen NIST’s safety system from top to bottom.”
On July 30, a scathing 61-page report said that during testing to enhance America’s ability to detect “dirty bombs,” plutonium sources were obtained at the NIST facility without management approval and handled by inexperienced and untrained researchers.
The result was the spread of plutonium contamination at the NIST lab and into the Boulder municipal sewer system.
Specifically, investigators found that in trying to conduct tests and experiments that would enhance dirty bomb detection:
As a result of that report, NIST said it was taking immediate actions.
Among those is that the U.S. Commerce Department, NIST’s parent agency, is establishing a blue-ribbon panel to examine safety matters at NIST.
NIST also said it will re-evaluate its organizational lines of responsibility and accountability for safety programs, seek independent assessments of its safety management, expand and strengthen its safety office and a develop a comprehensive plan for corrective action with dates for completing specific measures.
Further, because of concerns from the city of Boulder, NIST said it plans to conduct an assessment and inspection of hazardous materials on its Boulder campus and audit safety and training procedures for hazardous materials.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
