KAPL RADIOLOGICAL CONTROL PRACTICES
OPERATED BY THE GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY FOR THE US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
last update January 20, 2001
In 1947, as part of a deal to get the General Electric Company into the Naval Reactors program as a prime contractor, GE was allowed to incorporate a continuation of research on the PUREX process within the Knolls Laboratory. The PUREX process was used at Hanford to chemically separate plutonium-239 from spent reactor fuel. The PUREX research was not related to the Naval Reactors program ... it was essentially a weapons factory program. And just as GE totally contaminated Hanford and the Columbia river with radioactivity, it totally contaminated the KNOLLS ATOMIC POWER LABORATORY with radioactivity ... including, but not limited to, parking lots, landfills, railroad sidings, woodchuck holes, hallways, laboratories, offices, restrooms, and the technical library. Then, KAPL found it expedient to discontinued the employee radiation monitoring badges ... as a cost saving.
Please submit any comments, or questions, on the topics presented to :