Oil rig evacuated after radiation scare in Vietnam
HANOI - More than 400 workers on an oil rig off Vietnam were evacuated after a small amount of radioactive material went missing, authorities said Sunday. Workers later found the piece of iridium-192, which was used to power equipment used to check for flaws in welding on the oil rig off of the southern port city of Vung Tau, 100 kilometers east of Ho Chi Minh Ciy.
The iridium had apparently dislodged from the equipment and was discovered missing on Friday and relocated the same day, local media said.
"No one has fallen ill since then, but all the workers at the site have been taken to hospital for health check," said Nguyen Van Thuong, a Vung Tau police official.
At least 28 workers who had come in close contact with the iridium were sent to Vietnam's Institute for Nuclear Energy in Dalat for observation, he said.
Vietnam is working to build a nuclear power plant by 2020 with the blessing of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The country is also working to improve safety procedures for the small amounts ofindustrial and commercial radioactive materials found in hospital and other equipment.
"We don't know yet how the iridium source was dislodged and we are trying to find out if the iridium source had been properly used," Thuong said.
On Saturday, several dozen of the oil rig workers reported to the local hospital complaining of headaches and dizziness, according to Tuoi Tre newspaper.
However, the director of Le Loi Hospital in Vung Tau declined to connect the patients' complaints with the small amounts of radiation that the iridium source would have emitted.
"Most of them have been released,"Tran Van Bay, the hospital director, said of the patients from the oil rig.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - December 30, 2007.
400 Vietnamese workers evacuated from oil rig after radioactive device goes missing
HANOI - More than 400 Vietnamese workers were evacuated from an oil rig after a radioactive device was lost, officials and state media said Sunday.
Nearly 200 panicked workers were tested for exposure at a local hospital after dozens complained of dizziness and problems breathing, said Tran Van Bay, director of Le Loi Hospital.
Preliminary test results showed all were in good health, Bay told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
"We did not find any problems after different tests on their blood and hearts were conducted," Bay said, adding four workers remained hospitalized Sunday because of dizziness, though the cause remained unclear.
The radioactive device, used to inspect welding knots on an oil rig in Ba Ria Vung Tau province, 75 miles southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, was misplaced when it was being moved from one welding area to another, said the online news Web site VnExpress.
It was missing for more than an hour before being found.
Twenty-eight workers who were closest to the device were sent to Vietnam's only nuclear institute in central Da Lat city for chromosome testing, said director Nguyen Nhi Dien.
Those test results will not be ready until next week, said Dien.
He said it would have been difficult for radiation poisoning to occur because the device, which was not damaged, had a low level of radioactivity.
Vietnam has about 200 industrial and health care establishments that use radioactive devices for medical treatment or industrial purposes, according to the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety and Control.
The Associated Press - December 30, 2007.
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