 "Photo: Annie Snodgrass")
About 200 students, faculty and staff were locked in an auditorium in Welch Hall after a radiation scare Monday night at the Experimental Science Building. No radiation was detected after everyone was scanned for exposure.
The Austin Fire Department determined that plastic lab utensils had melted in a dishwasher, generating smoke on the second floor of the building. A call was made at 6 p.m. to the University Police Department because of a "plastic, smoky smell," said Rhonda Weldon, a UT spokeswoman.
UTPD went in to investigate, and one officer's personal radiation detector - called a dosimeter - was tripped, alerting the Austin Police Department.
"[The dosimeter] will go off even if you're standing next to someone who's recently had radiation treatment," Weldon said, adding that the dosimeters have been known to go off for no reason at all.
At that point, the call became a hazardous materials call, and the Austin Fire Department took over, Weldon said. Sixteen emergency vehicles and more than 70 emergency personnel were present at the building.
Derek Balek, a chemistry senior, said that the second floor "smelled like burning."
Students caught in the building were not allowed to leave the area once officials arrived because of the suspicion of radiation exposure. Police officers ran Geiger counters over all the students to test for radiation and then directed them into an auditorium on the ground floor of Welch. Students were released at approximately 8:30 p.m., when no one was found to have been exposed.
"We figured it would be easier to keep them together now rather than have to track all of them down later," said Travis County Emergency Medical Services spokesman Warren Hassinger.
After the scene was cleared and opened up, the University sent two environmental health and safety inspectors into the building to do their own inspection with Geiger counters and radiation detectors. The inspectors found normal levels of radiation.
In spring 2005, the ESB failed to meet fire codes, and UT administrators discussed demolishing the building and reconstructing it entirely. Renovation of the ESB was indefinitely halted after the Texas Legislature failed to approve the UT System's tuition revenue bonds plan in late August, which would have been used to fund $75 million in repairs.
Gas pressure testing in March showed that if the building performed at full capacity, there would be a strong danger of explosion, given the building's age and condition, UT Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Hegarty said. The building was reduced to 50-percent capacity.
Be the first to comment on this article!