The frame and the wire were made radioactive by the Linac proton beam. Measurements of the radiation level are made at 1 foot and the radiation from the frame overwhelmed the radiation level from the tiny wire. During the repair, a small piece of wire, approximately 2 inches long, broke off and lodged in a glove worn by the technician. Because contamination is not associated with this work, gloves can be discarded into the clean waste stream. Activation is not removable from the surface of the wire.
Activation is radioactivity that is entrained in the sub-microscopic structure of the wire.
Normal radiation surveys that are taken at 1 foot from objects using hand-held instruments failed to detect the activated wire. The dump truck must pass through the BNL truck monitor, which is where the activated wire was detected, before it left the site for the town landfill. The Supervisor and the Linac Technician failed to recognize the wires were radioactive and dispersible. Equipment of this type should be identified throughout the AGS Complex and labeled. The RWP should trigger appropriate controls such as the use of white blotter-paper and special checking of the waste streams.