Misplaced radioactive device raises concerns

Friday, Aug. 9, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.

A radioactive source misplaced for two hours at a local casino during a training exercise raised the concerns of Nevada radiological officials.

After Sept. 11 and public fears of a "dirty bomb" made from radioactive materials, such an incident is "a public relations nightmare, not a public health threat," University of Nevada, Las Vegas, health physicist William Johnson said.

Bechtel Nevada trainers recovered the device, a radioactive source used to measure the accuracy of monitoring equipment. They discovered the device was missing after they returned equipment to the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and returned to the hotel.

Bechtel was conducting a course at Santa Fe Station in how to respond to weapons of mass destruction on July 22-23 for 105 law enforcement and emergency crews, said LeeAnn Inadomi, Bechtel's manager of external affairs and strategic communications.

The dime-sized piece of cesium posed no public health threat and the person responsible was not reprimanded, Inadomi said.

"The person responsible was asked over and over again if all the sources were accounted for," she said. "Obviously, a mistake was made."

When training exercises are conducted at a hotel, the experts keep the keys to a locked storage area, Inadomi said. The source was left behind in a room used for training on July 22.

Stan Marshal, chief of the Nevada Bureau of Radiological Health, said that the state has called Bechtel and the National Nuclear Security Administration to fill in the details of what occurred. Bechtel is the contractor hired by the NNSA to manage the Test Site.

"In a way, it almost becomes a non-issue," Marshal said, because the source was not found on the street or on the casino floor. "It still is an issue and we have talked to people involved. I believe we have concluded the source was found in a controlled area."

The radioactive source is small and does not need a license, field officer Larry Franks in the Las Vegas bureau office said.

"A person could eat it and nothing would happen," said Johnson, the health physicist.

To put it in context, the radioactive source is a fraction of the 330 millirems of natural radiation Las Vegas residents are exposed to every year from the sun, cosmic rays and local rocks, he said.

"It's still a public relations nightmare with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the fear of a 'dirty bomb,' " Johnson said.

There are small radioactive sources everywhere, including construction sites and universities, that do not need a permit, Johnson said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has reported about 170 radioactive devices from laboratories, universities and construction sites missing and unaccounted for through 2001.