Nine Romanian Workers Exposed to High

[John M Priest Jr <priestj@DTEENERGY.COM>]

  Nine Romanian Workers Exposed to High

  Radiation



  BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Nine workers have been exposed to serious

  levels of radiation while dismantling a smelting plant in western Romania,

  officials said Wednesday.



  The men have been hospitalized since June, but the incident has been

  kept secret while police investigate, the National Commission for the

  Control of Nuclear Activities (CNCAN) said.



  ``They wore no protective clothes. They got a huge dose of radiation

  from Cobalt 60, which could have killed them at once,'' CNCAN

  director Anton Coroianu told Reuters by telephone.



  Cobalt 60 is an artificially produced, radioactive isotope which serves a

  variety of medical and industrial uses.



  The nine were employed to dismantle two furnaces at the mothballed

  Victoria Calan plant, which has been closed since the 1989 fall of

  communist rule.



  A 1,100-square-foot area around the furnaces has been closed off to all

  but authorized personnel, including investigators, who must wear special

  protective clothing before entering the site, the watchdog body said.







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