Posted with permission from Confined Space, a newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues.
Major, Radioactive Oops: More than 30 nuclear experts inhaled uranium after radiation alarms and ventilation systems at a Department of Energy weapons site were switched off. The incident raises significant questions about safety in the nation’s premier nuclear labs: “not only were the labs’ procedures and responses riddled with errors, but even after attention was called to these incidents, other safety mishaps occurred. And the financial penalties imposed by the government didn’t seem to have a major impact on the labs’ conduct,” problems that the Center for Public Integrity is looking into in a series of investigative reports.