Uranium Detected Inside Pike County Middle School

Monday was the last date of school for Zahn’s Corner Middle School because of health issues after enriched uranium was detected contained in the constructing. Scioto Valley Local School officials notified parents Monday Might 13 that the varsity, with 350 students, was closing till additional discover.

An air monitor after the varsity additionally detected Neptunium 237, a radioactive isotope and identified carcinogen. The varsity district says they determined to shut Zahn’s Corner Middle School “till the supply, extent, stage of contamination, and potential impacts to public health and the surroundings could be decided.”

The Faculty Board President Brandon Wooldridge despatched an open letter to the community saying: The highest precedence of the Scioto Valley Local School District is to make sure the safety and health of our students and employees. The district was notified that enhanced uranium was detected contained in the Zahn’s Corner Middle School building and that Neptunium 237 was detected in a US Division of Energy air monitor situated adjacent to the school.

“It is the place of the Board that any stage of contamination close to our faculty is unacceptable,” Wooldridge mentioned.

In April, the Pike County Health Department called on the US Department of Energy to suspend all activities related to the construction of a nuclear waste disposal facility close to Piketon. They have been involved about traces of Neptunium that had been detected at an air monitoring station on the college.

The Division of Energy is continuing clean-up work on the 3,000-acre Gaseous Diffusion Plant campus. It closed in 2001. Now the Feds need to make it a nuclear waste storage facility and are facing opposition.

“Until the contamination is understood, and the potential impacts to health and environment, stop what you are doing and let’s determine it out and then get a plan going ahead,” Pike County Health Commissioner Matt Brewster stated.