The University of Tulsa is working to clean up what it is calling a minor spill of a radioactive chemical on its research campus and is having 21 people who may have been exposed to the cesium-137 undergo medical checks, school officials said on Tuesday.
The spill by Tracerco, a subsidiary of British chemical company Johnson Matthey that was contracted by the university, is believed to have occurred last fall but Tracerco did not notify the school about it until Aug. 25, the university said.
Tracerco spilled a small quantity of cesium-137, a radioactive isotope often used in research, in a restricted building on a campus that houses research equipment, according to Steadman Upham, the university’s president.
The cesium-137 was being used for research on a joint industry project managed by the petroleum engineering department, the university said. The level of radiation from the spill, thought to be around the volume of a teaspoon, is currently unknown, school officials said.
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