nuclear-news

Plutonium storage activities halted at Los Alamos

All work halted at U.S. plutonium facility — Concern about ‘inadvertent chain reactions’ (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/all-work-halted-at-u-s-plutonium-facility-concern-about-inadvertent-chain-reactions
Title: LANL puts nuke work on hold over safety concerns
Source: Santa Fe New Mexican
Author: Roger Snodgrass
Date: June 28, 2013

Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charles McMillan has halted a number of activities at PF-4, the lab’s main plutonium facility, pending a thorough verification of safety procedures. All areas of PF-4 involved in processing nuclear materials and production have been placed on hold. […]

Last month, a safety review by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board identified several problems during an inspection of safeguards against inadvertent chain reactions in the handling and storage of nuclear materials. In one instance, safety board staff identified a prohibited material in a work station. In another situation, workers at the facility identified two containers in a vault that exceeded prescribed limits for the mass and class of materials they contained. During the same period, a worker was found to have been contaminated by a leak from a faulty plug during a pressure test of a glovebox, which is supposed to be a tightly sealed workspace for handling radiological materials. “Multiple infractions” were reported in one particular room from recent months, where operations were already suspended. […]
Watch KRQE’s broadcast here

July 5, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA