Whether it was an accident or an adverse event will emerge only after investigations. But one thing is certain at the moment: a worker at the Casaccia research center was contaminated by plutonium and Isin, the body responsible for monitoring, found out about it after 4 days. The Ministry of the Environment, however, became aware of it 8 days later, when the Ageei news agency launched the news. While the prosecutor’s office is still waiting for the information that clarifies what happened last November 21st at the gates of the last suburb of Rome, Osteria Nuova, in the structure that once hosted nuclear testing and in which since 2003 Sogin, owned by the ministry of Economy, works on the cleanup of nuclear waste.
Plutonium in Casaccia, what Sogin does and where the nuclear waste is by the Rome editorial team 30 November 2024
The priority is to understand when the 59-year-old, who works for another company in the group, Nucleco, came into contact with the plutonium, through inhalation and then ingestion. The worker, responsible for managing radioactive waste in the Plutonium plant, was alerted to his radioactivity at the end of his shift by the detector. If the contamination had occurred during the manufacturing phases it would be an accident. If, as it seems, the problem arose during the undressing phases, then it is called an adverse event.
Impossible to know after three days of investigations: «We were informed with a notification of positivity on the evening of the 25th from the Society for the decommissioning of nuclear power. Based on this, we went to inspect the plant on the 27th”, says the director of the Isin, National Nuclear Safety Inspectorate, Francesco Campanella. In the meantime, the worker had already been visited: first by the internal clinical center and then to Gemelli, where he went in his car.
Therefore the communication arrived 56 hours after the system detected radiation, which was however lower than the annual limit of 20 millisieverts. “I’ll have to get checked, but I’m fine,” the man confided to his colleagues, who will have to undergo therapy based on chelating substances for three months, avoiding activities that put him in contact with radiation.
The analysis Plutonium case, a 20-year cleanup: 17 cubic meters of radioactive waste without a repository by Luca Fraioli 01 December 2024
The law, however, is clear: «The employer communicates, without delay and in any case within three days, to the Isin, the territorial labor inspectorate and the health service bodies, the accidents that have occurred (…) and the exposures that have led to exceeding the established values”.
For this reason, discontent spreads between the corridors of Mase and Isin. It must be understood whether the delay is due to an attempt to “contain” the information, as claimed by the PD deputies who presented a question, or whether the company wanted to wait for the results of the analyzes on the worker first, so as not to communicate false positives . «This week we will have the necessary information», says Campanella. The Rome prosecutor’s office is also waiting for you.
Enea Casaccia, the worker ingested the plutonium. Ministry notified of the accident after 8 days
https://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2024/12/01/news/operaio_contaminato_plutonio-423778108/?rss