Date 01/31/2002
Radiation center examines worker
BY SUNNY BROWN
AMERICAN PRESS
A contract worker exposed to radiation two weeks ago while working inside a Citgo settling tank underwent medical tests Wednesday at a world-reknown Tennessee radiation facility.
Mike Henry, a technical expert on radiation for the state Department of Environmental Quality, said the tests were administered at the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS) in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Scientists from REAC/TS have helped handle radiation leaks all over the world, including the 1986 radiation spill at Chernobyl.
Henry said eight workers with Owensby and Kritikos (O&K) Inspection Services were exposed to iridium 192 on Jan. 18. O&K was hired by Citgo to inspect the welds inside the refinery's alkylation unit.
As part of the job, the contractors took X-rays involving the iridium 192 inside a 70-foot-long, 14-foot-high settling tank.
The radioactive material came out of an inch-long capsule that ruptured when it came into contact with electricity, Henry said.
The most extensive exposure was to a radiographer who may have breathed in some of the material once it became airborne. Still other workers tracked radiation out of the vessel on their shoes. Those workers carried small amounts of the radiation into their vehicles and homes, Henry said.
"We caught up with all of that and got it cleaned up," he said.
The DEQ "bagged and secured" contaminated clothing, shoes and floor mats, he said.
The eight workers who were near the accident went to River Bend nuclear power plant in St. Francisville for body scans.
"Only the radiographer got a substantial dose, but it is not a life-threatening situation," Henry said. "The dose was similar to what he would probably get in a year anyway."
Henry said the dose will likely prove to be within federal guidelines, which amounts to about 1 1/2 to 5 times the amount of radiation produced by a single CAT Scan.
Meanwhile, Citgo must decide what to do about the contamination in the tank.
The refinery has hired Duratek, a materials management response company, to help determine a course of action. Citgo has also retained Dr. Max Scott, a health physicist at LSU, to provide expert technical assistance.
The DEQ is investigating the incident and monitoring remediation.
Henry said Citgo may decide to simply remove the tank from operation for the next few years.
Iridium 192, which is a shiny silver metal, has a half-life of 74 days. If left alone, it would decay in about 2 1/2 years, he said.
by the associated press
Workers exposed to "significant radiation" in a Southwest Louisiana oil refinery accident underwent tests Tuesday to determine the extent of any health problems caused by the contamination, state officials said.
Few details were released about Friday's accident at a Citgo refinery in Westlake, near Lake Charles, as officials declined to say how many workers were contaminated or how much radiation was involved.
Tests were conducted at Waterford nuclear power plant at Taft to determine whether they had breathed in contamination, said Jim Friloux, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality.
"It was significant radiation. What we know about the contamination now is that several workers were determined to have contaminated shoes. One had contamination on his hand," he said.
The workers' skin was cleansed immediately after the accident to remove any external contamination, Friloux said.
The accident was the second radioactive leak in Louisiana in a month. A package of radioactive iridium-192 was found to be leaking after it arrived at the New Orleans airport on Dec. 28, after being sent by truck from Memphis.
Studsvik, the Swedish company that manufactured the iridium pellets in that shipment, is developing a plan to safely open the container and determine why it leaked.
Friday's accident occurred as workers were using iridium-192 to conduct industrial radiography: testing the integrity of welding in large steel cylinders at the refinery. The iridium was inside a protective capsule at the end of a long cable-like device, Jim Friloux said.
The capsule somehow came in contact with an electrical circuit, causing it to rupture and leak the radioactive material, Friloux said.
DEQ and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission are investigating.
The workers were employees of Gretna-based Owensby & Kritikos, Inc., hired by Citgo to inspect the cylinder, called a vessel.