Rolls-Royce Fined as Workers Exposed to Radiation 32 Times Limit

A Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc (RR/) unit must pay more than 375,000 pounds ($607,000) in fines and costs after a screw-sized radioactive capsule exposed workers to radiation 32 times legal levels.

Rolls-Royce Marine Power Operations, which manufactures components for submarines, was fined yesterday for breaching safety regulations at a court in Leicester, England, the U.K.’s Health and Safety Executive said. The capsule containing Ytterbium-169 used to test welding was lost for about five hours at a Rolls-Royce plant in Derby, the HSE said.

“Gamma radiation emitted by this type of radioactive source is harmful to human health,” David Orr, the HSE’s specialist inspector of radiation, said in an e-mailed statement. “The company failed its duty of care on this occasion, losing control of the source without realizing it.”

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