UTMB virus lab, South Texas nuclear plant are ready

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3362586



The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has one of a handful of certified U.S. labs handling the world's most infectious, lethal viruses, a biosafety-level 4 facility. The campus is less than a mile from the Galveston seawall.

The lab's director, Michael R. Holbrook, said workers have already destroyed lab cultures in which viruses were growing and will begin packing the lab up today, putting remaining viruses in sealed and locked freezers. Then, if Rita still threatens Thursday, the lab will be fumigated with formaldehyde.

Plant spokesman Edward Conaway said the two reactors will shut down before hurricane-force winds hit the complex, which is several miles away from the coast. Work crews are in the process of tying down any equipment that cannot be brought inside buildings, he said. Before the storm hits, the plant's 1,300 full-time personnel will be reduced to a much smaller crew.

The reactor buildings, encased in 4-foot-thick concrete walls reinforced with steel, were built to withstand the forces of the most extreme tornadoes, Conaway said.