The toxic heavy metal beryllium has mysteriously
cropped up in a U.S. Department of Energy complex in North Las
Vegas, and investigators believe it may have come from a 1965
nuclear reactor explosion some 85 miles away.
In March of
2002, a contract worker at the complex was diagnosed with chronic
beryllium disease, which can damage lung tissue, causing shortness
of breath and, in extreme cases, disability or death. “(We)
were all alarmed and didn’t know what to do,” says Dr.
Louis Pepper, who tests former Nevada Test Site workers for
beryllium exposure. While the contamination was kept secret until
this fall, by August of 2002, the Energy Department had quietly
relocated all 650 employees and closed down the entire
complex.
One likely source of the contamination is the
38-year-old “Kiwi” experiment at the Nevada Test Site,
which tested the possibility of using nuclear reactors to power
spaceships. As part of the experiment, scientists deliberately
destroyed a modified nuclear reactor. Energy Department workers did
cleanup work in the 1960s, and then again between 1996 and 1997.
Investigators believe that workers may have tracked beryllium back
to the Las Vegas office during the second cleanup.
“We’re seeing it in the loading dock area of the
building, in crevices and on floors — ultimately, it’s
in the carpet,” says Darwin Morgan, National Nuclear Security
Administration spokesman. The Energy Department is now considering
whether to clean up the 140,000-square-foot complex or shut it down
permanently. The agency estimates that $2 million and six months
will be required to determine the exact cause of
contamination.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Contamination uncovered at Energy office.
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