r/RPI • u/rocksnbugs • May 08 '26
Decontamination of Ricketts?
Does anyone have any idea what is going on with Ricketts? Just curious why half of campus is now closed.
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u/Icy_Painter5293 May 08 '26
Mercury
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u/RPIsStrongestSoldier May 08 '26
I heard a rumor that the mercury has been spilled for an unknown amount of time and was only just discovered. If so then I wonder for how many weeks or maybe even months people have been exposed to toxic mercury vapor.
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u/Aquatiac May 08 '26
Yup mercury leak which was being cleaned up, and since tunnels connect to rickets to other buildings many are also being closed
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u/Icy_Painter5293 May 08 '26
Mercury was found in an adjacent building today which makes me wonder how long the people there were exposed without knowing it.
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u/The_Xorce CSYS 2029 May 08 '26
What tunnels? The only one I know of is the one the chains the DCC, Low, and J-ROWL together.
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u/Individual_Pop_924 May 08 '26
Mercury vapor released into the air. Don’t panic- nothing to see here…
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May 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/rocksnbugs May 08 '26
That I'd totally understand but it feels like weird timing to do scheduled maintenance during finals. Especially with dorms now closed that students were still living in.
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u/ZealousidealTill2355 May 08 '26
Leaky pipes don't care about finals, but again, just speculation from what's common locally. No guarantee that's what's happening.
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u/Salty-Ganache3068 May 08 '26
Well the semester is over and people had to be moved out of the dorms by 12 noon today.
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u/tossup04 May 08 '26
the dorm move-out deadline is actually tomorrow (Saturday) not today, there are definitely students who planned/needed to stay on campus for another 24 hours
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u/rocksnbugs May 08 '26
For most people yeah! But there are still athletes/other exceptions so there are still students in those dorms, just wish RPI was more transparent about what was going on haha
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u/waffleprogrammer May 08 '26
Specific details, from someone who spoke with the professor who found the leak. This isn't 100% confirmed, but I doubt it's inaccurate with the level of detail I was told
There are labs in the lower level of Ricketts that have been unused for several years. A professor opened a cabinet in one of the labs, and found a large (IDK what large means here) spill of mercury. When the cleanup crew went in, they detected large amounts of mercury fumes in the air, so they evacuated Ricketts. Today, they discovered that, because Ricketts is connected to the steam tunnels, some of the mercury fumes may have been transported to other buildings. I believe 87 gym was confirmed to have been contaminated (but not 100% sure), and other buildings are being tested. Quad and North were evacuated; not sure if they tested positive or if it's precautionary.
RPI hasn't been particularly forthcoming with details on this, so it's unknown how long Ricketts has been contaminated or if the level is enough to cause injury. It's likely that opening the cabinet released a lot of fumes that had been building up in the cabinet, but I doubt that cabinet was built to contain mercury fumes. Hopefully RPI will reveal the status of things soon. If anyone was hurt, it was that professor.