The Rutherford Building at Manchester University

[JessJen]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/inquiry-rules-lab-cancer-deaths-were-not-linked-to-radioactive-material-1799027.html

It's an interesting article, even with factual errors.  Take a look at the comments to date.

[Atomic Archeologist]

I agree with the first poster's basic message to the article's author,which I read to be "research better and get facts straight before writing."
One issue that wasn't covered in much depth was the non-retention of survey data.  In my experience with D&D, license closure terminates records.  Since the Physics department moved out of the building and it was opened to student classes and other departments I would assume (yes, I know those ramifications) that the applicable license had been terminated.  Survey information is discarded when that occurs.  The activity at the turn of the century most likely was done under another license arrangement, perhaps without a license issued by the NRC.  If that was the case, then the survey data would be with the applicable license or discarded when the work was done.  Irregardless, the fact that the reporter was unable to recover survey data is more an indication of the research skill and knowledge set and less an indictment of the University and/or regulators.