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With $12M From US Government, UNR To Decontaminate Building

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The University of Nevada, Reno has secured $12 million in federal money it will use to start decontaminating a campus building that was once used to test radium.

The school's Facilities Services Building has been vacated and the 30 employees working there have been relocated since low levels of radiation were detected in 2016.

The building was used from 1920 to 1954 by the U.S. Bureau of Mines to test radium-226. The U.S. Department of Interior announced last month it would send $12 million to the school to start the decontamination.

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The school says it needs to survey the building to determine the depth of contamination.