A federal district court judge put on probation a former Atomic Energy Commission member who covered up a 1982 spill of cobalt-laden water at an irradiation plant where he was vice president. International Nutronics, Inc. of San Jose, CA was fined the maximum amount, $35,000, for not reporting the Dec. 6, 1982 at its Dover, NJ plant and for hiding evidence of the accident from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The amount of tainted water spilled into a public sewer system from a tank used to irradiate and purify gems is not known.
--Peter Montague, Ph.D.

Descriptor terms: enforcement; fines; probation; water pollution; spills; cobalt; ca; radioactivity; ca; nj; nrc; irradiation; international nutronics; coverups; fraud;