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Thursday, July 3, 2008


WASHINGTON: Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have ordered a federal laboratory to stop using radioactive materials until it can show its procedures are safe after a plutonium spill.

A vial cracked June 9 at the National Institute of Standards and Technology lab. About one-fourth of a gram of powder containing plutonium spilled.

Institute officials have said a few employees had internal plutonium exposure and were being treated.

Radiation was found in two buildings and that internal plutonium exposure can lead to cancer, officials said. No threats to public health or the environment have been identified, commission officials have said.

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