- The Nevada Test Site is being investigated as the probable
source of toxic beryllium that is suspected of making one worker ill and
that forced the closure of an Energy Department complex that housed hundreds
of workers.
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- A team of scientists will investigate the place where
a small nuclear reactor exploded 40 years ago and other experiment locations
at the test site to see if they can be linked to the beryllium that turned
up last year at the complex in North Las Vegas.
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- "It appears that it did not come from machining
operations but was tracked in from the Nevada Test Site, from where at
the Nevada Test Site we don't know," National Nuclear Security Administration
spokesman Darwin Morgan said Wednesday about the contamination.
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- The possible sources include the southwest part of the
test site, 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where in the early 1960s "hundreds
of pounds" of beryllium were used to absorb neutrons for a nuclear
reactor power plant being designed for spaceships, Morgan said.
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- The team, led by the prime contractor at the test site,
Bechtel Nevada, includes the three national laboratories that use the test
site, the Lawrence Livermore lab in California and the Los Alamos and Sandia
labs in New Mexico; an environmental contractor and advisers from the Defense
Department.
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- Morgan said the team is expected to spend up to six months
and $2 million on the investigation, and its members will review "tons
of historical documents."
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- "We don't know the answer, and we want to know the
answer," Morgan said, noting that the effort is a priority out of
concern for the health and safety of workers "and the public that
goes out there."
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- A case of a debilitating lung disease caused by beryllium
turned up last year among 650 workers in the 1980s-vintage office complex
off Energy Way in North Las Vegas. Officials at first believed the worker
might have been exposed to small amounts of the light, sturdy metal that
had been machined there. The building had been used to produce diagnostic
equipment for nuclear tests with switches made of the element.
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- Now, Morgan said, evidence suggests workers may have
walked through some previously contaminated area at the test site, returned
to the complex and left residue from their shoes and boots on office carpets.
Detection results show the beryllium particles were for the most part on
the office floors.
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- "It turned up in the carpets and in doorway cracks,"
Morgan said. When inhaled, beryllium can scar lung tissue of people who
are sensitive to it, sometimes leading to chronic beryllium diseases, an
incurable but treatable disorder.
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- After news of the one case surfaced in March 2002, some
450 workers in the complex volunteered to be tested for beryllium exposure.
Twelve were found to be sensitive to beryllium particles.
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- The workers were relocated and the complex, which includes
buildings that accommodated office and warehouse functions, were put off-limits.
Morgan said officials are mulling whether to secure and abandon them, clean
them up for future use, or raze them and build new facilities. As a precaution,
Bechtel Nevada tested other buildings in North Las Vegas and at the test
site for beryllium, collecting 14,300 samples. Of those, results have been
returned for 12,000 samples.
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- "We're not finding anything in our facilities so
far that would be above background for beryllium or in excess of occupational
safety standards," Morgan said.
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- Morgan said other areas of the test site that the team
will investigate include the disposal site for debris from the project,
locations where 100 atmospheric tests were conducted, and tunnels where
nuclear devices were detonated for a defense agency's work in hardening
military equipment against a nuclear attack.
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- But those areas involved smaller amounts of beryllium
than were used in the 1960s Kiwi reactor experiment for the nuclear rocket
propulsion program. In that program, a reactor on a railcar was pushed
to its operating limits to study what happens when it fails and breeches
the containment vessel. In that case, it exploded.
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- "That's what we wanted to see. To see what it would
take to cause it to explode," Morgan said.
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- The debris was disposed of in an unlined pit after the
Kiwi experiment. The site was closed after samples were collected and checked
in the 1990s under a state-approved plan.
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- The nuclear engine was never produced because of safety
concerns for launching it into space.
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- http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Sep-18-Thu-2003/news/22187984.html
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- Comment From Frank 9-19-3
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- Hi Jeff,
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- It was mentioned in the story that huge amounts of Beryllium
were brought in to contain the neutron release from a small nuclear reactor
explosion they said occurred '40 years ago' and that this reactor was to
be used for space vehicles.
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- Specific time line dates are frequently altered as a
means of providing cover stories. Could this reactor explosion have have
anything to do with what was stated by Bob Lazar...that he was brought
in because the previous scientists working on a reactor had been killed
when it exploded?
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- Just something to think about.
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