UNIVERSITY SAYS RADIATION TESTS TO WRAP UP FOR NOW

Southeast Missouri State University expects to have tested about 60 employees and ex-employees for possible radiation contamination by the end of the work week, school officials said Tuesday.

The testing began Monday and will be completed by sometime Friday, officials said. The testing with a mobile scanner is being done by Helgeson Scientific Services of Pleasanton, Calif.

The equipment is housed in a trailer parked on the Show Me Center parking lot, but the company is scheduled to haul the equipment off to another job at the end of this week.

University officials said it could take three weeks to get back the test results.

As a result, any further testing will be determined by a contamination cleanup contractor that the university is in the process of hiring, school officials said Tuesday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has found radioactive contamination in the basement of the university's Magill Hall. It is believed the contamination resulted from the spilling of americium-241 in a locked safe in a storage room of the science building.

Radioactive contamination also has been discovered in a corner of a second-floor classroom, but university officials said that contamination doesn't appear related to the basement spill.

Both the basement and the second-floor classroom have been sealed off while the university proceeds to hire a cleanup contractor. Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president, said the university plans to hire a contractor this week.

Wallhausen said the university has a growing list of about 140 people who visited the basement storage room over the past seven years.

Those scheduled for testing this week are individuals the university believes had the most exposure to the radiation.

Wallhausen said the university can always do more health testing at a later date. "It is not going to cause immediate harm."

But that doesn't sit well with Jane Spantgos of Kelso. She asked Tuesday that the university allow her 13-year-old son to be tested. School officials refused.

Spantgos is worried that her son may have been exposed to the radiation in the basement when he attended a weeklong Horizon science program at Magill last week.

Dr. Chris McGowan, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics, said he told Spantgos that her son and other students would not have had access to the basement. "We had people monitor to make sure these kids didn't go downstairs," he said.

McGowan estimated there were some 20 students in the building last week for the summer science program.

He said the classrooms had been checked and there appeared to be no contamination in those rooms. "We felt that the students were safe in rooms that they were using."

But Spantgos said the university should have alerted parents to the contamination problem in advance and given them the opportunity to remove their children from the program.

"Obviously, if we had known as parents there was a chance of radiation exposure we would have reconsidered putting our children in a program that was optional," she said.

Spantgos said she hadn't asked her son if he had been in the basement of Magill Hall. But she said she felt it would have been worth her peace of mind to get her son tested.

McGowan said the university knew of the radiation leak in March. He said the university's response, including the testing, has come with the consent and advice of the NRC.

NRC officials recommended the university do the health testing. Southeast expects to spend about $35,000 to $40,000 for the health scans.