A minor radioactive leak in Jadwin Hall on Monday initially raised safety concerns but further testing has determined that no individuals were harmed and contamination was minimal.
The leak was caught by officials at the University's Office of Environment Health and Safety during a routine health and safety check of the building. "It probably wouldn't have been detected without the routine safety check, which indicates the small amount of the leak," University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 said.
The leak, caused by the radioactive isotope strontium-90, originated from a tiny hole in the foil seal of a storage container.
The surrounding areas in Jadwin Hall showed no sign of radiation. "Contamination was limited to the rooms where the test source was stored and used, and not found in any public spaces," University officials said in a press release.
As a precaution, however, similar radioactive sources "used to test detectors that identify high-energy particles in elementary particle physics research" have been temporarily taken out of use.
Though the 300 students, faculty and staff who regularly work in Jadwin were notified of the leak yesterday, only one researcher was exposed to it. The researcher, whose name is not being released for privacy reasons, "worked with [the radioactive source] without detecting any problem."
"Many medical procedures that we get without thinking about it give off radiation in greater levels than would have been the exposure of someone working directly with this source," professor Daniel Marlow, chair of the physics department, said in the press release.
The particular radioactive test source involved in the incident was manufactured in the 1960s and has been used by the Princeton physics department ever since.
The isotope is used in "detectors ... designed and constructed in Princeton's physics department, and the radioactive isotope strontium negate[s] the need for researchers to travel to a particle accelerator to test them," Cliatt said.
The contamination was minor enough to be sanitized with standard cleaning solutions. Cleaning will continue today.
Jadwin Hall, with the exception of the areas where the source was stored and used, has been unaffected and will remain open throughout the decontamination process.
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