More Contamination Incidents

[fegallag@uci.edu (Frank E. Gallagher, III)]

I have been enjoying the spill "war stories" on Radsafe during the past few
days and have decided to describe a few of the more serious contamination
incidents which occurred at two different universities that I have been
associated with.  None of these incidents happened at my present campus. 

University A.

        1. A capsule of reactor irradiated materials was being opened in a
small temporary building used as a Physics laboratory.  When the capsule
could not be opened, one of the researchers put it into a vise and opened it
with a saw.  Needless to say, radioactive rare earths were everywhere.  I
think one individual showed some uptake.
As a result of the expanded health physics program resulting from the
incident, I was hired as a fresh-out-of-grad-school HP.  A couple of years
later, a decision was made to dispose of the contaminated vise.  We placed
the vise and a small part of the table into the center of a 55 gal drum,
then filled the drum with concrete.  It was shipped in a sole use vehicle
with a dose rate of 1 rem/h at 1 meter from the drum. (Mid 60's).

        2. A couple of years later, I responded to a contamination alarm at
night in the facility built to replace the temporary physics laboratory.  A
researcher had not been able to open a capsule of reactor irradiated rare
earths and had broken it open on the floor with a hammer.  With the alarm
sounding, he moved the capsule and most of the contents to a fume hood and
started to process it.  Several other individuals also ignored the alarm
until HP staff arrived to take charge of the incident.  Cleanup was a lot
easier than the first incident, due to the construction features of the new
lab, increased use of protective clothing and shoe covers, and more
effective HP emergency response. (Late 60's).

        3. I remember an incident when an early ultracentrifuge failed at
high speed while spinning lots of P-32.  The head, with most of the P-32,
flew across the room and smashed into the wall.  Fortunately, no one was in
the way so there were no injuries, only a messy decon operation. (Late 60's). 

University B (all in the same multistory biology lab building):

        4. A biology researcher was incubating some cells in solution with
50 mCi of P-32 in a water bath.  The container broke, the water bath
flooded, and the P-32 got all over the lab bench, floor and researcher.
There was no internal contamination.  With assistance from a HP consultant,
the lab bench was cleaned and the floor was covered with plywood for over a
year.  I was hired as RSO in the general upgrading of the HP function after
the incident (I became the entire HP operation).  I remember surveying the
clothing and shoes of the researcher and giving them back to him after decay
of the P-32. (Early 70's)

        5. A researcher was using water from a fume hood to cool an
apparatus above the hood.  The line broke inside the hood, and water sprayed
over the contents of the hood (glassware contaminated with P-32 being held
for decay and eventual reuse).  The contaminated water ran onto the floor
causing serious contamination in the lab, which was cleaned up by lab
personnel.  The floors in this building were not well sealed, however, and
the contaminated water seeped through the floor and fell as "hot" rain in
the student zoology lab below the P-32 lab.  The spill occurred in early
December, and the levels were low enough that we could close the lab for
decay until the start of the winter quarter in January. (Late 70's).      

        6. A researcher discovered P-32 in the hallway while performing
self-monitoring (maybe he knew where to look).  About 3 dozen spots were
about one stride apart.  My small group was totally overwhelmed in
responding to the incident, but we eventually got the situation under
control.  Since the spill was in the corridor, we monitored the soles from
about 600 pairs of shoes (only a few were "hot"). We eventually removed over
1,000 linoleum floor sections and held the broken pieces for decay.  We were
never able to completely establish responsibility for the spill, since no
nearby labs were contaminated. (Mid 80's).



Frank E. Gallagher, III, CHP
RSO, Univ. of California, Irvine 92717-2725
Voice: (714) 824-6904, Fax: (714) 824-8539
E-mail: fegallag@uci.edu