Topeka ? A Kansas laboratory responsible for testing for contamination in the event of an accident at the state’s only nuclear power plant hasn’t been staffed for several weeks after its final two employees left in September.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said routine samples are being sent to the Iowa State Hygienic Laboratory until new staff can be hired at its Radiochemistry Section. If there were an emergency, several other KDHE bureaus would respond, agency spokeswoman Sara Belfry told The Topeka Capital-Journal.

The KDHE confirmed Thursday that the lab hasn’t been testing samples since late September and hasn’t been staffed since Sept. 22.

In addition to routine testing at the nuclear power plant near Burlington, south of Topeka, the lab would be “called upon to analyze samples which would determine extent of resulting contamination” after an accident, according to KDHE’s website.

Russel Stukey, emergency management coordinator for Coffey County, where Wolf Creek is located, said he found out the lab had no staff within the past couple of weeks.

“It’s probably not horrible, but it is not the way you would prefer to have it,” Stukey said.

In response to any nuclear accident, Stukey said he would likely over-evacuate the area around Wolf Creek as a precaution. Results of testing done by the radiochemistry unit would probably be used to help determine whether people could return to their homes, he said.

“The re-entry is where that data probably will be the most valuable. So it’s important to get people back to their homes but it’s not so much of an emergency,” Stukey said.

Belfry said KDHE expects to interview and hire personnel as quickly as possible. It has posted five chemist positions at a salary of either $19.66 or $22.16 an hour. That comes to about $41,000 or $46,000 annually.

The lower-paying positions call for a bachelor’s degree in a natural science field with 25 chemistry credit hours and six months of experience in chemistry. The higher-paying positions call for two years of chemistry experience.

The median annual salary for chemists and materials scientists nationally was $73,060 in 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Belfry declined to say what constitutes full staffing for the radiochemistry unit, saying only that the unit has maintained appropriate staffing levels to meet its needs and objectives.

Rebecca Proctor, director of the Kansas Organization of State Employees, said the lab had five employees in 2014 but two left before the end of the year. By July, only two remained, and they left in September.