The World : 14 Contaminated at A-Plant

Fourteen workers at a nuclear processing plant in West Germany have been contaminated with plutonium, a spokesman for the company said. He said it is possible that additional people came into contact with plutonium at the Nukem plant in Hanau, near Frankfurt. A total of 67 workers are being examined. Nukem processes only uranium, from which it makes fuel rods for reactors. But a recent batch of uranium from a research institute turned out to be contaminated with plutonium, a byproduct of uranium processing. It was first discovered in routine checks at the end of February. Contamination with plutonium can lead to cancer.