SCHOOL DAYS

They call it the Pirate Ship. A tattered flag with a skull and crossbones hangs over the trailer. At the door is a hex sign, “to ward off evil spirits,” says Grant Miner, a senior health physics technician. “To keep us safe and sound.”

Welcome to the radiation lab of the Office of Environmental Health and Safety, tucked behind a chain-link fence on a sandlot at UC Irvine. This is the hazmat team for UCI, with counterparts on every campus in the UC system.

Any radioactive, or potentially radioactive, substance that goes on campus--for class experiments or research--first stops at the Pirate Ship, where technicians test it to make sure the radiation levels are safe. The pirates also clean up chemical spills on campus, store hazardous waste and keep an eye on the labs to ensure that substances are handled safely. The level of radiation they are exposed to is tiny: “When I went to the dentist the other day, I got more radiation than I’ve gotten from working here a year,” Miner says.

Even so, the pirates have developed a brand of atomic humor. When people ask about his work, Miner, 26, who stands more than six feet tall and whose hair is twisted in long dreadlocks, tells them: “I like working with radiation. Heck, I was only 5 foot 6 when I started working here,” he says. “But it screwed up my hair.”

Do they get scared, these men who work with Geiger counters, space suits and liquid scintillation machines?

“I get scared breathing the smog,” says Bill Nabor, a health physicist and 17-year veteran of the job.

“Driving on PCH,” Miner says. “That’s scary.”