Radiation affects 13 nuclear plant employees in New Mexico
Radiation affects 13 nuclear plant employees in New Mexico
World Feb. 27, 2014 - 01:45PM JST ( 4 )
WASHINGTON —
A total of 13 employees of a New Mexico underground nuclear waste site were exposed to radiation, test results showed Wednesday.
The workers tested positive for americium-241, an isotope prevalent in the type of radioactive waste—transuranic waste containing mostly plutonium—at the nation’s first underground repository for such material.
The radionuclide is also used in commercially available smoke detectors and is a contaminant in nuclear weapons manufacturing.
But the manager at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Jose Franco, said the contamination was likely minimal and stressed that more testing would be needed.
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