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The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) have published a meeting report on the first gathering of the Nuclear Energy Standards Coordination Collaborative (NESCC). NESCC is a joint initiative to identify and respond to the current needs of the nuclear industry. The activity provides a cross-stakeholder forum to facilitate and coordinate the timely identification, development, and revision of standards for the design, operation, development, licensing, and deployment of nuclear power plants. Standards for other nuclear technologies, including advanced reactor concepts, will also be addressed. On June 1, 2009, more than thirty individuals gathered at the NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md., for the inaugural NESCC meeting. Attendees first discussed the intent of the activity, which is focused on collaboration and coordination rather than standards development. Ambler Thompson, Ph.D., of NIST and Fran Schrotter of ANSI then led participants in a thorough review of the group's charter, and the group agreed on very minor revisions to the document. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Nuclear Society (ANS) indicated that they would need to seek their respective Board approvals at upcoming meetings. The charter will be finalized based upon any comments from ASME, ANS, or any other interested stakeholder, provided such comments are received by ANSI by close of business on Wednesday, July 15.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology doesn't put a priority on safety and doesn't give researchers and scientists the tools they need to be safe, according to a report released Friday by a blue-ribbon commission charged with analyzing the adequacy of NIST's safety programs. U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez formed the commission in August after a plutonium spill June 9 on Boulder's NIST campus. The commission's report said the staff at NIST "is eager, willing and ready to embrace a safety culture," but that it needs leadership to make that happen.

In early June, a glass vial of plutonium powder broke at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology lab in Boulder, Colo. More than a dozen researchers were exposed to radiation - and the agency was exposed as a dysfunctional workplace. The plutonium spill was only one of several serious accidents reported at NIST labs in the last couple years. In March, a university researcher was shot in the eye with an infrared laser while placing a slide on a microscope at the agency's headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md. The researcher is under continuing medical care, and NIST said it tightened its laser safety policies as a result. And in June 2006, a contract construction worker sustained near-fatal injuries when a 500-pound steel beam fell on his head while working at the Boulder campus. The worker has a damages claim pending against the agency, although NIST refused to discuss it.

The June 9 spill of plutonium at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder has been widely covered by the news media. The tale mainly has been a buildup of damning detail, capped by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's July 2 suspension of NIST's license to handle radioactive materials until NIST improves its procedures.

A commission formed after a plutonium leak at a National Institute of Standards and Technology lab in Boulder says the agency suffers from "a serious lack of resources for safety." The Blue Ribbon Commission on Management and Safety released its findings Friday, five months after at least a dozen people were exposed to plutonium at the lab. Officials have said none are expected to suffer significant health effects. About a quarter-gram of powder containing the radioactive material spilled through a crack in a vial on June 9. The report says safety is not a "core value" across the NIST, and it blames a lack of leadership.

Investigators have found additional traces of plutonium at the National Institute of Standards and Technology lab in Boulder, where a vial of plutonium-containing powder cracked Monday. Twenty-two employees were monitored for radiation as a result of the accident.

Twenty-two workers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology underwent decontamination procedures for plutonium exposure Monday. One-quarter of a gram of powder containing non-weapons- grade plutonium spilled when a vial cracked during an experiment.

A spill of radioactive material a congressman deemed "a matter of deep concern" prompted three rooms to be sealed at a Boulder laboratory and 22 employees to be monitored for radiation.

The acting director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology called the June 9 plutonium spill at the Boulder campus unacceptable and said Friday that the agency is strengthening its safety program. The statement by Dr. James Turner came hours after U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., called for a review of NIST safety practices, saying he is "seeking answers . . . as to how this situation could have been allowed to have occurred in the first place."

An effort to enhance the United States' ability to detect "dirty bombs" went terribly awry at the Boulder campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology where dangerous plutonium sources were obtained without management approval and handled by inexperienced and untrained researchers, a scathing report released today said.

A Boulder, Colo., laboratory says new tests show that more people were exposed to plutonium than originally thought after a June spill there. No one who was exposed is expected to have significant health effects. The National Institute of Standards and Technology said Thursday that about half the 29 people who have been tested showed signs of exposure. The specific number wasn't released.

A plutonium spill at the Boulder campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology has generated numerous concerns among U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff, an NRC official testified today in Washington. Among them, said Charles Miller, are the amount of radiation individuals were exposed to as a result of the spill; the amount of radioactive materials released into the Boulder sewer system; and procedures at NIST's Boulder facility, particularly those related to the handling and storage of radioactive material.

An internal investigation found that sloppy safety procedures and poor training and response contributed to the mishandling of a plutonium spill at the federal National Institute of Standards and Technology lab last month.

BOULDER - A cracked vial spilled a few particles of radioactive powder at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder on Monday, briefly quarantining 22 people and forcing two labs to be sealed off. The plutonium-laced powder was found on the shoes and some clothing of most of the people. Two staff members had trace contamination on their hands, and trace contamination was found in a nearby hallway and a small office area.

Trace amounts of plutonium were potentially washed into Boulder's wastewater system from two locations at the National Institute of Standards and Technology after a June 9 plutonium leak, federal and Boulder city officials said Wednesday.