February 26, 2007
Lab Workers Exposed to Plutonium
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- Los Alamos National Laboratory has suspended the handling of plutonium in gloveboxes.
A glovebox is a sealed workspace that allows lab workers to handle radioactive materials safely from a separate area.
The suspension of the work comes after two lab workers were exposed to plutonium through cuts they suffered in separate accidents while working in gloveboxes last month.
Lab spokesman Kevin Roark said the amount of plutonium was relatively small.
But he said the seriousness of the accidents is associated with the exposure to open wounds.
Roark said both workers are responding well to therapies.
Lab managers were informed of the incidents Jan. 25 and immediately suspended handling plutonium in gloveboxes pending a full review, he added.
Posted: 2/20/2007 10:22:00 AM Source: AP @ | KRQE News
~Is there's a law that requires nuclear facilities to make public reports of accidents involving workers exposed to radioactive materials within thirty days of the incident? A law which also requires them not to report the names of the people poisoned?
[glovebox photo not from above]
~I think I'll write the Dirty Jobs guy (on the Discovery Channel) and suggest he try his hand at working a glovebox someplace. I wonder how many globebox jobs there are in the US?
>not so related: Terra's Glovebox Galleries:http://terrauniversal.com/products/gloveboxes/gallery_gbx/gloveboxgall1.shtml
Posted by Stubbornson at February 26, 2007 07:52 PM