anecdote, another

["Les Slaback, Health Physics" <SLABACK@micf.nist.gov>]

Having circulated a compilation of the anecdotes that were sent to RADSAFE
I am not getting more from some of our researchers.  Here is one:


As a graduate student I did a high-fluence reactor irradiation at the MTR.
Reactor Operations required the samples to be packaged in welded zirconium.
After irradiation my samples, packaged in some 10 mCi of Zr-95, were
shipped to me in a 300-pound lead cask lent by INEL. Because the cask had
to be sent back anyway, INEL kindly agreed to dispose of the used (hot) Zr
capsules. Unfortunately, the University shipping people picked up the cask
from the hot lab before  I had secured the head bolts or HP had blessed it,
so the citizens of San Diego were greeted with a newspaper headline 2" high
saying "Radioactive samples from UCSD are lost!"  The cask had arrived in
Idaho Falls without the zirconium, so the National Guard radiological crews
all up the west coast got practice in finding four shiny metallic hot
samples in the railroad yards.  The moral: HP saves embarrassment only if
they get a chance.

Richard M. (Dick) Lindstrom
Analytical Chemistry Division
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Paleomail: B125 Reactor Building
           Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
Fax:        301-208-9279
Phone:  301-975-6281
Alternate e-mail:  Dick@rrdvaxb.nist.gov
                                 Richard.Lindstrom@nist.gov

These make very useful training stories.
Someone should periodically remind folks to post them so we all can
benefit.

SLABACK@MICF.NIST.GOV  [NBSR Health Physics Group]
    ...a little risk, like a bit of spice, adds flavor to life