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Workers contaminated at Los Alamos National Laboratory as glovebox window removed December 15, 2025 The replacement of a glovebox window at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium facility last month led to two workers’ skin being contaminated and another’s nasal smear testing positive for plutonium, according to a recent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report. Gloveboxes are sealed containers with attached gloves that allow workers to handle materials in a controlled, isolated environment. There are approximately 400 gloveboxes in Plutonium Facility Building 4, or PF-4, the lab’s hub for plutonium work. In this case, the glovebox was used to handle heat source plutonium powder. Window changes aren’t typical preventive maintenance for gloveboxes, but are done on request, Los Alamos National Laboratory spokesperson Steven Horak wrote in an email to The New Mexican. On Nov. 19, air quality monitor alarms went off during the window change, according to the report from the safety board’s resident inspector. Monitor readings exceeded the allowances in the operation’s work permit. Workers secured the new window, according to the report, but as they left the tent, air monitors continued to detect an increasing amount of plutonium contamination, which “peaked well above” immediate evacuation limits, the report stated. “The personnel followed correct procedures while conducting their activities and continued to do so when the continuous air monitor alarmed,” Horak wrote. “All personnel exited the tent and surrounding area immediately when the limits were exceeded.” Technical Area 55 Radiation Protection, which developed the work permit for the window removal, was “immediately notified.” Technical Area 55 houses PF-4. All workers were wearing required personal protective equipment, Horak wrote, and were decontaminated, given bioassay kits and met with experts in the radiation protection division. In response to the incident, the lab is forming a learning team to develop corrective actions, Horak wrote. Corrective actions being considered include requiring higher protection factor respiratory protection when working with certain gloveboxes, as well as modifications or additional requirements for personal protective equipment. Published comments by Greg Mello: Thank you for reporting on this. A potentially life-changing experience for the employee with a positive nasal smear. I suppose that person may now need to submit urine samples to see how much if any went deeper into their body. They may have joined the "IPPu Club." Related: by 2015, the Department of Labor had awarded death benefits to almost 1,600 LANL workers' surviving family members. See As U.S. ramps up nuclear production (again), the human toll of past work continues to mount, including at LANL, Feb 5, 2020. Total compensation paid by DOL to LANL workers and their families now exceeds $1.307 billion. See https://www.dol.gov/agencies/owcp/energy/regs/compliance/charts/los_alamos. It would be one thing if there was a coherent moral purpose involved in working in LANL's weapons program. The sacrifices would have meaning. But there isn't. National security isn't being enhanced by LANL's work.
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