The Nation : EPA Staff Barred From Uranium Plant

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its counterpart at the state level have barred their employees from visiting the federal government’s uranium processing facility in southwest Ohio because of the risk of exposure to radioactivity, a spokeswoman confirmed. EPA Regional Administrator Valdas Adamkus, in a letter last week, said tests showed that agency personnel were exposed to uranium oxide when they went to the Feed Materials Production Center at Fernald and that no EPA personnel would go to the site “until this health risk can be satisfactorily addressed.” The Ohio EPA followed suit, said spokesman Allan Franks. But the plant’s operator said that routine urine tests to detect exposure ensure that the workers are protected. “We think the plant is safe,” said William H. Kelley, spokesman for Westinghouse Materials of Ohio, the contractor running the plant for the Energy Department.