Accidents happen, nuclear researcher says
http://www.knoxnews.com/editorsview/munger/fm10252000.shtml
October 25, 2000

By Frank Munger News-Sentinel staff writer

Much has been written about worker illness in Oak Ridge, safety problems past and present and possible compensation for those whose health was affected by exposures in the nuclear workplace. Radford M. Carroll, a retired researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, sent me an electronic message this week with a very personal perspective on the situation.

His viewpoint contrasts with some others who've spoken out, decidedly so, but the 76-year-old scientist is respectful of those whose experiences and opinions differ from his. He emphasized that he was not trying to demean anyone.

Carroll simply wanted to share some thoughts, reflecting on his work in the nuclear environment, and he did so articulately.

Here's an excerpt from his message:

"Accidents happen in all types of employment. Sometimes it is the fault of the employer, sometimes the fault of the employees, and sometimes it just happens.

"In 1953 I was working in the Solid State Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. I was conducting an experiment with irradiated thorium metal, and the policy at that time was that the person doing the experiment in the hot cell also cleaned it afterwards.

"There was a tiny piece of thorium oxide, no bigger than a match head and thin as tissue paper that had flaked off and was on the blotter paper covering the floor of the hot cell. The cleaning process that had been developed was to use a commercial vacuum cleaner with a disposable paper filter to remove the dust from the blotting paper.

"This time it didn't work. As soon as I vacuumed the flake of thorium oxide, the radiation alarms sounded. The flake had disintegrated into sub-micron size particles that passed through the filters and deposited as smoothly as paint on all the surfaces of the room back of the hot cells.

"Every surface, including my nose and lungs was reading 20 mr/hr (millirems per hour). We didn't wear respirators when cleaning the cells, but considering how the material passed through the paper filter, they would have been useless.

"Other than getting my nose washed out, there was nothing to do. Thorium is a bone-seeker and it would be with me the rest of my life. One thing was that I never again had a whole body count (measuring the intake of radioactive material) since, as it was pointed out, it was a useless exercise.

"About 10 months after the thorium accident my wife had a child that was born birth-defected and died shortly after birth. I am convinced that the birth defect was caused by my internal radiation exposure. However, I never then or thereafter blamed anyone.

"There was no carelessness or concealment of danger. A system that had worked before did not work for this material. We were in a learning process, and the radioactive thorium exposure was an accident with no blame to me, my supervision or my company."