Report Spreads Blame for Cesium-137 Spill in Seattle

摘要

The Department of Energy, the manager of its Los Alamos National Laboratory, and an on-site contractor all shouldersome blame for a May 2019 incident that contaminated a University of Washington building in Seattle with cesium-137,according to a recent report.The “preventable” event during a radiological source recovery operation resulted from “weak and partially implementedprocesses within” the Energy Department, lab prime Triad National Security, and International Isotopes, according to theMarch 30 report from a joint investigation team [JIT] of personnel from DOE's semiautonomous National Nuclear SecurityAdministration (NNSA) and Triad. “These weaknesses established conditions where the event was likely to happen. TheJIT views this event as a near miss to a significant event in that only a small amount of the 2900 curies of cesium wasreleased.”