Navy Radiation Scare Ruled a False Alarm

A civilian employee at the Port Hueneme Navy base triggered a false alarm about a radiation hazard on Monday by reporting feeling ill after peeking inside lead-lined canisters, a Navy spokeswoman said.

Firefighters and a hazardous- materials team responded to the report, evacuated five employees from the warehouse and cordoned off the area before determining that the canisters posed no risk to human health, said Linda Wadley, spokeswoman for the Naval Construction Battalion Center at Port Hueneme.

The incident began at 10:30 a.m. Monday, when Steve Melton was doing a routine inspection of military surplus items to be shipped to government agencies or sold to the public, Wadley said.

In making his rounds, he discovered four lead-lined canisters on a pallet, she said. Melton reported the suspicious-looking canisters to his supervisors and expressed feeling ill.

The supervisor called the base’s fire department and sent Melton to the medical clinic, where he was examined, Wadley said. Then he returned to work.

Meanwhile, the hazardous-materials team called in a radiation-safety officer from the nearby Point Mugu Navy base. He donned a protective suit and examined the 12-inch canisters with a radiation monitor, she said.

Inside, he found nothing except another monitor for low levels of radiation, Wadley said. The highly sensitive monitor was kept inside a canister to prevent it from being contaminated by ambient radiation, such as that emanating from the sun.