Los Alamos Lab contamination worries lawmaker
By THE NEW MEXICANJuly 28, 2007
A state lawmaker who once worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory says she worries that she could have been contaminated in connection with a 2005 incident.Rep. Debbie Rodella, D-Ohkay Owingeh, made the comments Friday at a meeting of a LANL legislative oversight committee.
She complained to lab director Michael Anastasio that the lab hadn’t provided her information or been responsive to her concerns about her health.
In July 2005, a lab worker was exposed to americium 241, a radioactive decay product of plutonium. The contamination subsequently was spread to his home, to homes in Kansas and Colorado and to a Pennsylvania research lab.
The Department of Energy said the contamination levels were low.
Rodella said she had been asked to retrieve personal belongings about a year ago from an office that had been contaminated during the 2005 incident.
She said she was concerned the contamination may have affected her belongings, but that she has been unable to get any information from the lab about the nature or the extent of the problem in the office.
“I’m concerned about my health as a result because I’m not sure what to get tested for,” said Rodella, who left the lab last year.
Anastasio said the lab is “always concerned about our employees” and promised that the lab’s legal counsel would help her get the information.
13 comments:
The Rodella's, Debbie and Tommy, are miscreants of long standing.
Looks like someone is gearing up to sue the lab.
CDC info on Americium.
Million one, million two, million three... (Little Debbie counting the legal damages she hopes to win while trying to fall to sleep).
Her pueblo (AKA San Juan) was in today's Lab News Bulletin. LANS is going to act a business mentor to help this pueblo win lots of US government contracts. How very special! All the San Juan pueblo big-wigs were at the pow-wow at LANL this morning in celebration of this new agreement.
Yet another Native America corporation given special rights for business deals with the federal government. I guess the big gambling casinos aren't bringing in enough cash these days to satisfy our oppressed local natives.
albuquerque.bizjournals.com/
albuquerque/stories/2007/07/30/daily17.html
LANL signs first mentor-protégé agreement with a tribal business
New Mexico Business Weekly - Wednesday, August 1, 2007
This is the first business owned and operated by an American Indian pueblo to be part of the mentor-protégé program, says Steve Sandoval, spokesman for LANL.
Under the agreement, LANL will provide technical assistance in marketing, proposal development, networking with potential customers, purchasing management, project management and quality assurance. The agreement is designed to help TSAY improve its ability to compete for contracts across the complex.
Just a guess, but perhaps LANS is getting ready to outsource parts of LANL's operations to TSAY corporation. What are the odds?
She was asked to enter a contaminated office to retrieve personal belongings? It sounds like that risked spreading contamination all over the place again. Has anyone checked to see if that happened?
And why deride her for not knowing about the health risks of Americium? The lab director sent her to the lab's legal counsel. Do you think she's going to get any information there?
"Just a guess, but perhaps LANS is getting ready to outsource parts of LANL's operations to TSAY corporation."
Yeah, I can see it now. Within 7 years, LANS will lose the LANL contract and DOE/NNSA will decide to hand the contract over to TSAY Corporation LLC.
LANL is the proverbial Golden Tit upon which everyone likes to suck - LANS executives, Bechtel, BWXT, St. Pete, KSL, TSMs, SSMs, etc. TSAY Corporation will now get to queue up and get a big taste of it before it all runs dry.
8/2/07 10:01 AM: Her office was posted for several months as a contaminated area and entry prohibited except with special permissions. In part, this was to preserve the scene for the DOE investigation. Then there was a massive effort by RCT's and waste management coordinators to survey every single item in the contaminated areas and determine if it could be "free released" or had to be deconned or disposed of. This occurred over the course of several months.
I believe Debbie Rodella quit her job at the lab sometime between the contamination event and the completion of the cleanup. You'll see evidence of this if you look at the old UPTE salary lists from 2005-2006, she disappears on the May 2006 list. (Maybe so she could focus full time on bashing LANL?) Anyway, that's probably why she's being directed to Legal for information.
What was this woman's position and job that had her in an area that became contaminated?
Don't worry folks, as she has done numerous times in the past, I am sure that Christine Chandler with her legal prowress will simply have the Lab settle and fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Ohkay Owingeh "victim."
So LANS is "mentoring" the TSAY Corporation on "best business" practices? What a hoot! I can just see the first lesson, taught by Mikey, himself:
MIKE: "OK, fella's, the first think you'll want to do at TSAY is to load the company up with lots of high priced managers and their associated support staff. It's called management bloat and we practice it here at LANL all the time. This will help you to drive up the cost of your construction workers to around $450,000 a year. With such high labor costs, you'll be able to bring in tons of construction money!"
TSAY: "But white-faced forked-tongue ewok, won't this make it difficult for us to win new contracts?"
MIKE: "Shucks, no. Just put out a nifty advertising logo like 'World Greatest Construction' and the buyers will then be lining up to hand you the money. Your customers will feel honored to be paying out such high labor rates. Believe me, it's a sure fire winner of a business practice. We use it here at LANL all the time."
Any more details on this story?
http://www.abqjournal.com/cgi-bin/decision.pl?attempted=www.abqjournal.com
/santafe/584023north_news08-05-07.htm
Wife Filled Rodella Coffers
State Rep. Debbie Rodella used her own campaign re- election war chest to bankroll her husband's campaign for a $77,673-a-year magistrate judge post in Española, according to a Journal analysis. (Sunday, August 5, 2007)
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