Re: contamination incidents

[TOOHEYR@ORAU.GOV]

At the National Lab where I used to work, a routine survey of the biology
building revealed a non-smearable hot spot on the floor; further
investigation showed the source was actually a floor-level electrical
panel on the wall.  Inside the panel were the dessicated remains of a lab
mouse who had been administered Sr-90/Y-90 and evidently made a
break for it.  The necropsy was inconclusive as to whether (s)he had
been zapped inside the panel, starved, or succumbed to radiation
poisoning.  The question was why hadn't previous surveys found the
culprit, and what was the extent of tracked or excreted contamination
inside the walls, etc.  Discretion being the better part of valor, we
decided the contamination would probably decay away before the
building would be demolished or re-habbed, but put a note in the files just
in case.  The moral of the story for the PI is count your mice the old
fashioned way: 1, 2, 3....

Dick Toohey
ORISE/RIDIC
TooheyR@ORAU.GOV