Radioactive Leak Into Creek Reported at Oak Ridge Lab

A leak of radioactive Strontium-90 at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory caused unusually high levels of radioactivity in White Oak Creek for several hours Friday.

Laboratory spokesman Ed Aebischer said water samples taken Friday morning showed radioactivity levels four times above the creek’s normal level. But Friday afternoon samples were normal, Aebischer said, indicating the problem had corrected itself.

He said lab workers never found the source of the contamination but would continue looking.

Aebischer said Strontium-90 is not used very often now at the national laboratory and officials were convinced the leak was not coming from “current operations.”