FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS
A chemical spill that prompted staff to evacuate and shut
down a reactor at the Texas A&M Nuclear Science Center on Thursday morning
was quickly cleaned up and declared safe.
College Station Fire Department Battalion Chief Robert
Mumford said crews responded to a call shortly after 9 a.m. reporting a spill
of four liters of toluene, a common colorless liquid solvent often added to
gasoline. First responders arrived at the facility within five minutes to
mitigate the spill until A&M health and safety staff could clean it. The
facility was ventilated and its 15 staff members were allowed to return by
10:30 a.m., but were given the rest of the day off as a precaution.
NSC Director Sean McDevitt commended his staff for quick
thinking in a situation that posed no serious safety threats.
"Everybody responded correctly and did the right
thing," McDevitt said.
Staffers were taking care of some "spring
cleaning" and moving chemicals from a chemical storage cabinet in
preparation for a repainting project in the facility when McDevitt said a staff
member moving the chemicals dropped them down a flight of stairs in an area far
away from the reactor.
McDevitt noted the evacuation was not spurred by the
chemical's toxic properties, which only causes light-headedness from short-term
exposure, but for its flammable properties. No injuries were reported.
The NSC's website states the 55-year-old facility southwest
of the main campus past Easterwood Airport supports the A&M Department of
Nuclear Engineering and serves approximately 80 nuclear engineering students
every year. It is also a tourist attraction that pulls in more than 1,000
visitors annually.
McDevitt said the cautious response his staff was
appropriate even though there was never much of a threat at all, but the fact
that the spill occurred at a nuclear site might have frightened some people.
"It's not as big of a scare as it sounds,"
McDevitt said. "We got it handled."