employee exposure incident;

Officials have concluded the emergency response to Tuesday’s radiation exposure event, but medical evaluation of exposed workers and investigation into the incident continue.
Initial body scans on 16 employees potentially exposed to radioactive materials were completed Tuesday night (initial reports inaccurately stated 17 employees were potentially exposed). The employees were offered precautionary treatment for internal radiation exposure and went home after initial scans were complete.

Today, doctors at Idaho National Laboratory’s Central Facilities Area are performing follow-up lung scans on three employees. All 16 exposed employees are receiving more detailed monitoring to determine whether they received internal exposure. These assessments rely upon biological samples that take days to collect and analyze, so it may be several weeks until monitoring determines the extent of individual doses.

INL has suspended work associated with transuranic materials handled outside of gloveboxes or hot cells at the Materials and Fuels Complex. Such work will resume after procedures have been evaluated and verified to be adequate. Additional long-term corrective actions will be established after officials conclude investigations to understand the cause of the incident.

The affected area at the Zero Power Physics Reactor has been isolated. A recovery plan will assess the level of contamination and determine a path forward to decontaminate the affected areas. External monitoring showed there was no release to the environment and the public was never in danger.

INL officials will be available Wednesday to answer media questions.
INL