14 DAY TRIAL // This past Sunday, the Department of Energy in the United States announced that excessive radiation levels had been documented at a waste site in New Mexico.
Information shared with the public says that traces of radiation were first picked up by sensors installed in the underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on Friday, at about 11.30 p.m. local time.
This facility sits in the state's southeastern region, near the city of Carlsbad, and serves as a repository for so-called transuranic waste, i.e. material contaminated with radioactive elements that have atomic numbers higher than uranium.
At the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, transuranic waste is buried in underground salt formations that serve to isolate it from the outside world.
Mirror reports that, at the time when sensors detected the excessive radiation levels inside the nuclear waste storage facility, the 139 workers who were on the job were all above ground.
Consequently, neither of them was exposed to radioactive contaminants, the same source details.
Shortly after the alarm was sounded, the workers all sought shelter and, at about 5 p.m. on Saturday, they were allowed to leave the facility and return home.
Although further investigations must be carried out in order to determine the exact cause of this spike in radiation levels, it is possible that a leak might be to blame.
“They [air monitors] have alarmed in the past as a false positive because of malfunctions, or because of fluctuations in levels of radon [i.e. a naturally occurring radioactive gas],” said Roger Nelson, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy.
“But I believe it's safe to say we've never seen a level like we are seeing. We just don't know if it's a real event, but it looks like one,” he went on to explain.
It would appear that, by the end of the coming weekend, workers will be able to inspect the underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and try to pin down the reasons behind the radiation spike.