Published: November 10th, 2011 at 11:59 am ET
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INL Holds Press Conference About Plutonium Accident, KPVI, Nov. 9 at 8:03 pm ET:
[...] “Tuesday, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. a container was opened inside the Zero Power Physics Reactor building, and employees were exposed to a high level of plutonium” [...]
INL Materials and Fuels Complex Nuclear Operations Director Philip Breidenbach: “We believe there was a breach in that cladding which allowed the radioactive material to be released. I want to assure you that we take this event very seriously.”
INL Environment, Safety and Health Director Sharon Dossett: “We offered precautionary treatment to all of them and then after the lung scans were completed yesterday they were all allowed to go home. Now three of them have come back today for further lung scans based on results of what we say yesterday on the initial lung scan.”
“After a second round of testing only one tested positive for internal plutonium.”
- “They are taking fluids with calcium or zinc through an IV. Those chemicals will bind with the plutonium to help it pass [... also] antacids to elevate the pH in the body.”
- “Total determination of how much plutonium might be in workers’ bodies will not be available for weeks once the body scans are complete.”
- “Of the 16 employees potentially exposed, six of those have tested positive for low-levels of contamination based on external surveying.”
Published: November 10th, 2011 at 11:59 am ET
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nuclear power – SO SAFE!
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The last bit is important, “they were wearing protective equipment”.
One can infer from that statement that the exposure must have been so great that for 3 of them the protective equipment must have failed and allowed particles to be inhaled.
Crazy good times there! Like “teasing the dragon” from back in the day…
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Correction it’s “tickling the dragon’s tail”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core
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My guess is that they had the suits on and the suits worked.
Then they got real sloppy while taking the suits off and that
was when they breathed in the Pu.
Reminds me of some of the guys at Fuku wearing suits and no hoods… eyes and ears totally exposed to particulates.
Or better yet, a group of Fuku clean up guys where most are suited and hooded and then there are some who have what amounts to a painters white suits with no hood and no respirator.
Never mind the idea that the suits are useless with respect to external radiation exposure.
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The Turkey’s aren’t the only ones getting cooked this month !
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If Pu is so hard to detect in the environment-then it must be even harder to find inside the body,right?,so how would they actually determine how badly these workers got dosed?-with Plutonium being one of the heavier elements of the group & the disgustingly horrific description I’d recently read telling of it’s grotesque tendency to seek out and accumulate in the testicles of it’s victims(oh,the horror)-would they weigh their sack,or ask the victims if their junk is hanging down lower since the exposure event?!!-I don’t know how they can even justify sending those guys back home so quickly either?!!-I get the same stomach ache now that I got when I learned of the details about Plutoniums favorite destination the other day! Being “hit below the belt” has taken on a whole new meaning in this case!!
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OT – Johnny Blade will you give me your opinion on a Navy Surplus rad unit? I’m looking at a AN/PDR-27S with high and low range GM wand, illuminated analogue meter, and full operation and service manual. You mentioned before how you preferred the units that you used in the Navy. I hope you don’t mind me asking.
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Sure LeftyMom65-You did good!!-you’ve got the latest generation of the series which has several great features and little to complain about.The earlier models were a pain in the rear because they used 3 different types of batteries-where your great find uses 6 D-cell flashlight batteries,it’s solid-state as opposed to the previous vacuum tube types which may offer more resistance to EMP due to a nuclear explosion which isn’t an issue in this case(yet).As a matter of personal preference I like analog meters vs. digital readout and a really nice feature is that it contains 2 seperate GM tubes-V101,the smaller of the 2 for beta/gamma readings in the 500 & 50 MR/hr ranges and the larger V102 tube which must have its hinged cap open for taking Alpha counts. I think both tubes are connected in parallel for the 5 & 0.5 MR/hr. range. Just make sure the cord to the permanently attached probe isn’t damaged and it’s calibrated properly and you are good to go!:) ~if you have or get a source for testing/calibrating the radiac it should be fine without resorting to having it calibrated & certified by industry sources which I’m probably just being paranoid regarding my suspicion that outfits or certified individuals associated with the nuke industry “could” turn down the sensitivity of the units as part of the “mission” to downplay the amount of what is in the environment being tested by “individuals”(?) A pc. of Uranium ore,etc. with a known value is all that you should need once you get the hang of the unit and its functions. Congrats on a nice find & I hope it never displays anything of “immediate” concern(sorry for using that hated word used by our beloved official health agencies)lol,P.S.-I’d hoped those Radiac units would never be useful beyond making good paperweights & conversation pieces!! Good Luck & Best Wishes!!
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@Leftymom65-let me add that I misread the post and assumed you already had the unit in your possesion. Check that both GM tubes,V101 & V102 are in place & intact,check the fixed cord to the probe(wand),and make sure that old batteries weren’t left in the unit which may have leaked or exploded causing damage to it.If there is signs of battery leakage/damage in the compartment which is minimal or easily dealt with it should be ok.Good Luck with it! Also,for anyone else with older versions or other units employing vacuum tube technology-I may be able to help track down NOS or alternative tubes of recent manufacture which are still made or in stock in the former Soviet Union countries (Lithuania,for one example)Good Luck!! ~Damn!! The snow is really coming down here on the Southside of Chicago!!Wonder what the readings would be on this-our 1st snowfall of the year??!!
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Well, I can tell you because I just got caught in it. : (
Been dry all day so I went to mail something and when I came out of the post office it was a full on snow storm. Not sticking on ground though.
191 CPM
.67 µSv/hr
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that’s a bit high-but it’s been worse around here for sure! Where are you at by the way!-I’m guessing somewhere in the tri-state area?
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Maybe thats why oral sex is causing oral cancer. Due to plutonium.
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maaaaa noooooo
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LMAO! I can’t leave that one up on the monitor accidently!!be ruining my only 45 second break from impending doom!!~Say it’s not so?!!!~lol
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pass out the gamma radioactive shielded condoms
on the bright side hookers and coke don’t seem so risky after all.
party like it’s 1899!! a time before they found this shit and became masters of all they command to destroy.
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HELL YEAH!!-1899!!= Victorian-era hookers & a bottle of Coca Cola had “The Real Thing” in it, Over the counter cold tablets main ingredient was heroin,opium dens were legal recreational facilities,absinthe was the drink of choice for the “movers & thinkers”~AND BEST OF ALL~NO “MAN-MADE”SOURCES OF RADIATION!! Sign me up for that trip in your time machine,cuz I wanna Party Like it’s 1899!!!lol!!
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These workers are going to have some serious problems with even a low dose. What they won’t tell us is that it was a lot higher of a dose than they want anyone to know. Nuclear policy is to DENY DENY DENY…retract.
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According to the EX-SKF blog, they didn’t detect Pu, they detected Am241 in the lungs.
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/11/idaho-national-lab-accident-plutonium.html
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