School took part in nuclear weapons research for the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb, and a spill took place in Palmer Hall — but was cleaned up and the area decontaminated
By: Jeff Milgram
Yes, Princeton University officials confirm, there was a spill of radioactive material in 1936 in Palmer Hall, which is now part of the new Frist Campus Center.
But, no, this is not news, they say, and it’s certainly nothing the university is trying to hide.
The story broke more than a week ago, when the U.S. Department of Energy listed the university, and specifically the then-Palmer Physics Laboratory, as sites involved in nuclear weapons research.
After combing the university’s records, Princeton officials now confirm that the school took part in nuclear weapons research for the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb, and that a spill took place in Palmer Hall, but was cleaned up and the area decontaminated.
The university, in a prepared statement, said that a spill of radium-226 occurred on the second floor of the west wing of Palmer Hall in 1936 and contamination from this incident affected several floors in the west wing.
Extensive surveys of affected areas were conducted during the final decontamination project in 1971, university officials said.
In a letter dated Oct. 22, 1971, the state Department of Environmental Protection gave the affected areas of Palmer Hall a clean bill of health, university officials said.
Manhattan Project work occurred during the 1940s in the northwest corner of the Palmer basement. In 1976, Princeton was contacted by the U.S. Energy Research & Development Administration, which had compiled a listing of sites that had been involved in Manhattan Project research, university officials said.
Extensive surveys were then performed in the basement of the northwest corridor wing, and a final decontamination took place. The DEP said the northwest corridor wing was OK for unrestricted use in September 1977.
The Palmer Cyclotron, located in the northeast corner of the basement, operated until about 1970. In March 1998, the university Environmental Health and Safety Office conducted a final survey of the Cyclotron vault and rooms adjacent to the vault, room 105, and found no remaining radioactivity, university officials said.
A recent decontamination project removed residual contamination from surfaces in the room, and the room was surveyed, inspected and given a clean bill of health by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1998.
University spokeswoman Marilyn Marks said several newspapers, including the New York Post, the Newark Star-Ledger and Education Chronicle Weekly, wrote about the decontamination in 1976.
She also said university records show the Daily Princetonian, the student newspaper, wrote a story headlined "Palmer lab decontamination effort reveals little danger of radiation" on Dec. 1, 1977.