Engine Overheats in NASA Goddard Building Containing Radioactive Material

Multiple smoke detectors sounded alarms in  at about 9 p.m. Thursday—opening the ventilation system in a building with radioactive material, according to NASA Goddard News Chief Ed Campion.

Although the Prince George's County Fire Department (PGFD) sent in a Hazmat team that determined there was not a radiation issue, this morning the Goddard team discovered there had been a heat and smoke issue, Campion said.

The chance of multiple alarms failing was pretty small, he added.

Campion reported that a team of NASA Goddard safety officers and facilities personnel discovered a motor in a mechanical systems' room with scorched paint that had overheated and smoked, Campion explained. 

"It got hot enough to generate smoke, but it never got beyond that," he said, adding that the Goddard team had confirmed the PGFD report that there was not a radiation issue.

The motor was in a different part of the building than the radioactive material, and it is a small amount of material, Campion said.

For security reasons, Campion would not release the name of the building, but he said the material is stored in a bunker.

Goddard uses the radioactive material for science experiment activity, to test radiation detectors, and it can test spacecraft that is going to be operating in an environment with radiation, according to Campion.

"If you're out in space without protective shielding, you're being bombarded by radiation," he said.

The building's system is set so if it sees multiple smoke detectors going off, Campion said it tells the air handling system to open up dampers to ventilate the facility. He added that it also recognizes it has opened dampers in a building with radioactive materials, and it has opened up to the outside.

This is why, as a precaution, Goddard alerted the PGFD Hazmat staff. The situation was completely resolved by 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Campion said.

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