Argonne National Laboratory Director Robert Rosner is hoping that a sharp letter by the Department of Energy (DOE) criticizing the Illinois lab's safety practices won't hurt an upcoming bid by the University of Chicago to retain management of the 2900-employee lab.
Rosner, who joined the lab last year, is part of a new management team; bids to run the 60-year-old lab are expected next month. But last week, in a preliminary notice of violation, DOE announced that inspections last year turned up lapses in radiation dose monitoring, safety training, air sampling, and other practices--and that the lab would be fined $550,000.
Due to a legal loophole, the University of Chicago won't have to pay the fines. But the offenses "certainly won't help" the university's bid to retain the management contract, says Al Teich, head of science policy at AAAS (which publishes Science). No injuries were sustained nor research projects damaged as a result of the safety violations.
"We are committed to making safety as outstanding as the science at Argonne," says a university spokesperson. In January, Rosner stopped experiments on radioactive materials at the Alpha-Gamma Hot Cell Facility, a shielded lab for work on radiation emergencies, one of several "corrective actions" that DOE said the lab has already taken.
