Beryllium investigation to focus on Test Site

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003 | 11:02 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Previous machine work did not cause the beryllium contamination at an Energy Department complex last year, recent data from an ongoing study shows.

Scientists will now look to the Nevada Test Site as the possible source of the contamination. They will try to determine where the material came from at the Test Site and how it traveled to the complex in North Las Vegas.

"We know we have beryllium at the Test Site. We've know that fact for a long time," said Kevin Rohrer, spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site office. "But we don't know exactly where is was tracked from."

NNSA had evacuated more than 400 employees from a North Las Vegas office complex after it found traces of the metal, a highly toxic material used in nuclear weapons, and sickness caused by the substance turned up.

Weapons components and instruments used to measure underground nuclear weapons explosions were once made in the building, leading officials to believe that was the source of the contamination. But the new data shows that is not the case.

"We know it was not from the machine operations now based on the recent samples," Rohrer said.

The Nuclear Security Administration and Bechtel researchers will study the Test Site to find the source, but Rohrer did not know when it was expected to be complete.