Officials: Company found toxic metal at plant

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The toxic metal beryllium has been detected in everyday production equipment at one of two government uranium plants, and it could be sickening plant workers, Energy Department officials said Thursday.
The beryllium was discovered last month in aluminum blades used to produce enriched uranium at the plant in Piketon, Ohio, said William Murphie, the Energy Department official who oversees cleanup efforts at the Ohio nuclear facility and a plant in Paducah, Ky.
Murphie said the agency had not thought the metal was present at the Ohio plant, believing it was only found in areas of the sprawling Paducah plant where old weapons work had been performed.
The Louisville Courier-Journal first reported the discovery of the beryllium in its Thursday edition.
Murphie said USEC Inc., a Bethesda, Md.-based company that runs the government plant, made the discovery. He said it started testing work areas in Paducah and Piketon after the workers' union shared the results of screenings it had conducted.
More than a dozen current and former workers had beryllium sensitivity, Murphie said. Blood tests indicated their bodies have formed a reaction to the metal and they could develop chronic beryllium disease later.
The scarring lung disease can be fatal.
One worker at each site tested positive for the disease, Murphie said.
Murphie said the area in the Piketon plant where the beryllium was detected last month has since been cordoned off and similar steps were taken protectively at the Paducah plant.
He said further testing will be done at both plants.
"We're still just at the very beginning of the sampling program up there," Murphie said. "We may well find it in some of the other places."
Beryllium has been used to make triggers for nuclear weapons, nuclear plant rods and computer circuit boards. It is not dangerous in solid form, but its dust can cause serious respiratory ailments if inhaled. Government regulations call for tight controls and protection for workers from the metal.