A project to enhance the United States’ ability to detect “dirty bombs” went awry at the Boulder campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where dangerous plutonium sources were obtained without management approval and handled by inexperienced and untrained researchers, according to a scathing review released Wednesday.

The result, said the 62-page report by the NIST Ionizing Radiation Committee, was the spread of plutonium contamination at the lab and into the Boulder sewer system.

Specifically, the investigators found:

• Three plutonium sources were acquired without adequate hazard analysis or management approval.

• When the plutonium was received, all protective barriers were removed except the screw-topped glass bottle in a sealed plastic bag.

• Inexperienced and untrained researchers worked on the project.

• The work area was neither restricted nor controlled for radiological work and was in a busy, multi-use laboratory.

A broken glass bottle

The researchers took the glass bottles of plutonium from the bags with ungloved hands.

After one 30-year-old glass bottle broke and the plutonium spilled June 9, the researcher handled the materials, significantly spreading the contamination in the work area and on his body. He then left the area, spreading the contamination outside the lab.

In statements released Wednesday, the institute said that it is taking immediate steps. Among them is that the U.S. Commerce Department, the institute’s parent agency, is establishing a panel to examine safety matters there.

Paying for monitoring

The institute has suspended the use of all radioactive materials at its Boulder facility and “will not be reapplying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to use plutonium or any other special nuclear materials at any time in the foreseeable future.”

The institute also will pay for testing and monitoring the Boulder sanitary sewer system for effects from the plutonium discharge.

The institute told the city it is developing a detailed plan for decontaminating the laboratory where the plutonium sulfate tetrahydrate spill occurred.

“The most probable direct cause of the spread of the contamination outside the laboratory area is the multiple, uncontrolled entries into and exits from the contaminated laboratory after the spill,” said the report.

The report said that the release of plutonium into the sanitary sewer system was probably caused by the researcher washing his hands in the sink and failing to make sure the water didn’t flow out of the sink.

The report noted that the researcher didn’t report washing his hands in the sink until June 16.

“We are developing a comprehensive plan and putting in place actions that address the committee’s recommendations,” said James M. Turner, the institute’s deputy director.

Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com