I worked at Los Alamos for several years, and wore a TLD (dosimeter, radiation detection device). The only two times mine was ever "triggered" was when I left it on at the dentist (x-ray) and at the airport (x-ray).

It's interesting to see that these explanations are suggested even when employees say it isn't the case -- when I was "brought in" for my "why did you get this many mrems" talk, I explained about the dentist and the airport, and still got sent home (for a week!) with three doctor's visits and additional screenings. Many anecdotes != data, but when I asked a lot of my friends who worked there, or still work there, they were equally surprised.

None of us knew Chad Walde. It's well-known that different groups at the lab take safety more or less seriously. Which is obviously a huge problem when your dealing with source material.

I do wish the article had a little less of a "nuclear taboo" doom & gloom to it... there's less background radiation in Los Alamos than there is in Los Angeles. And substantially less than areas surrounding coal plants. In my experience, the "fear of the glow" causes people to view nuclear power with extreme suspicion... even when coal & oil plants actively pump far more deadly stuff into the air, far closer to major population centers.

The lab needs to get their shit together, and I believe they've done a lot over the past 10 years... hopefully it keeps moving in the right direction...