Radioactive material lost by Wednesfield High School
Radioactive material was lost by a Wolverhampton school, prompting an investigation, it can be revealed today. Chiefs from the Health & Safety Executive probed the loss of five radioactive sources from Wednesfield High School.
They were originally intended for use in school demonstrations but went missing in July last year. They are among 30 such incidents which have occurred over the past decade, which have been revealed under Freedom of Information laws. Education chiefs at Wolverhampton City Council stressed the materials posed no danger.
The radioactive material lost from the Lichfield Road school included two sources of strontium, one of plutonium, one of americium and one of cobalt.
It was decided to take no further action against the school. Tim Westwood, Wolverhampton City Council's assistant director for schools, said: "The Health and Safety Executive carried out a thorough investigation and concluded that the missing radioactive sources were low risk and posed no danger to the public.
"They also carried out leak tests on the site and found that there had been no contamination had occurred and no further action was necessary." In June 2006, the University of Warwick was also revealed to have been made subject to an HSE improvement notice after losing caesium.
In January 2003, the University of Birmingham was sent written advice after losing phosphorus.
Other organisations misplaced potentially dangerous materials including Rolls Royce Marine Power Operations Ltd in March 2011.
In the same month as Wednesfield High School lost sources, UK Coal Mining Ltd lost plutonium - a radioactive source.
Dee Smith, spokeswoman for the HSE, said: "Many of the cases involved the loss of school demonstration sources.
"Schools use a range of very low radioactivity sources for teaching which are designed and supplied for the purpose, as such they are subject to the requirements of the regulations but by design present a very small risk from exposure. Cases involving the loss of such sources almost invariably do not manage to identify the final location. They are extremely hard to detect in landfill or even by radioactive scrap metal detectors since they contain such low activity sources." Mr Westwood added: "These items have not been found. They are of no danger and security arrangements have been tightened."
