Routine check reveals a level "too minute to cause harm"
By: Jake Uitti
A routine environmental health and safety check this week of materials used in one of Princeton University’s physics laboratories showed a leak of a small amount of radiation.
Tests showed that the leak was "too minute to cause harm," according to a university news release. The university said its Office of Environmental Health and Safety found no signs of contamination Tuesday in the public hallways, offices or other spaces outside a lab where a hole was found in a foil seal of a radioactive isotope, strontium-90.
"We have taken our other test sources out of service until we have had a chance to conclude our investigation," said Professor Daniel Marlow, chairman of the physics department. "The benefit here is that the problem was detected by routine safety checks, and so the spread of the material was minimal."
University safety specialists conducting a semiannual inspection of the test sources in a room on the third floor of Jadwin Hall on Monday found a broken seal on one of the sources, officials said, prompting tests of the room and the surrounding area Monday and Tuesday. The university said there are no signs of any ill effects experienced by the researcher who was using the test source.
Traces of contamination found on experimental surfaces in the laboratory where the test source was stored were small enough to be cleaned with traditional cleaning solutions, health specialists said.
Cleaning materials were disposed of in special waste containers, university officials noted. All of the estimated 300 university faculty, staff and students who work in Jadwin Hall were notified of the leak Tuesday.
University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt said university officials got in touch with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission as a requirement. Due to the small size of the leak, she said, no outside officials have been brought in to conduct any cleanup efforts.

