Nuclear regulator criticizes Teaneck lab that lost uranium

Newsday.com: Nuclear regulator criticizes Teaneck lab that lost uranium: "Nuclear regulator criticizes Teaneck lab that lost uranium

Master Spas and Leisure

Master Spas and Leisure

Pool Mart

Lynbrook Smile Design Studio

Marina Carpet

Master Spas and Leisure

Grover Home Headquarters

Grover Home Headquarters

Grover Home Headquarters

Lady Liberty Cruises

July 21, 2005, 12:33 PM EDT

TEANECK, N.J. -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has criticized a chemical laboratory that lost a small amount of uranium.

The federal agency on Wednesday said LeDoux & Co. committed three violations in the handling of the uranium-235, which is still missing.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan told The Record of Bergen County for Thursday's newspapers that the 3.3 grams of uranium is too little to be used in a dirty bomb and the substance isn't radioactive enough to hurt people.

Investigators believe the powdered substance may have been mistakenly thrown out and is in a landfill in New York or Pennsylvania.

The uranium was shipped from a company in Virginia to LeDoux, which analyzes chemicals used in the nuclear industry. LeDoux alerted the NRC that the uranium was missing on April 13 after the company found it had only six of the seven canisters of the material that had been shipped.

In its report, the NRC said the Teaneck company overlooked one of the canisters that was in the package from Lynchburg, Va. Then, even though they knew they didn't have all seven canisters, LeDoux workers threw the packaging in which the canisters came into the trash. Lastly, instead of throwing the packaging in the garbage, workers should have transferred it to a facility authorized to receive such material.

LeDoux, which says it has have already put in place measures to correct the problems, has seven days to respond to the report. "