Strontium-90 on Tennessee Highway 95

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Radioactive material leaked on highway 



Associated Press 



OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - Federal and state health officials say they may have to

tear up about a third of a mile of road on the Oak Ridge nuclear reservation

and repave it after radioactive strontium 90 leaked out of a truck onto the

road surface.



The road - Highway 95 - was closed Friday night.



Authorities from the U.S. Department of Energy said a truck carrying waste

byproducts leaked several drops of strontium 90 over a 25-foot area of the

highway. Strontium 90 is a byproduct of the fission of uranium or plutonium,

the materials that fuel atomic bombs.



Officials said there was a possibility some vehicles may have driven over

the contamination, and they encouraged anyone who may have done so to

contact their local health department.