Late News

摘要

A second release of radiation has occurred at wipp, less than a month after a February 14 incident in which a small amount of airborne radiation was detected by a continuous air monitor in the underground nuclear waste facility, bringing disposal operations there to a halt (see page 59, this issue). On March 11, an air sample collected from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's underground ventilation exhaust shaft recorded 61 disintegrations per minute of americium, an amount the Department of Energy's Carlsbad Field Office characterized as "very small." The DOE also suggested that the elevated reading was likely the result of accumulated radioactive material from the February leak having become dislodged from the inner surface of the exhaust ductwork. In support of this view, the DOE reported that samples collected at the same monitoring station prior to and for 72 hours after the March 11 release indicated only background radiation levels.