REALLY an NRC EVENT??

[ptyree@cisusinc.com]

RADSAFERS - DO YOU KNOW?....

Q:What is the intented purpose of an "INFORMATION ONLY" Event Report?
Q:Does the following event No.37197 seem to you to serve any useful purpose?

What got my attention was a Special Nuclear Material license cited when the
subject
sealed source is Byproduct Material...then the INFORMATION ONLY bit.
Finally,that
the source "..may be leaking.".

MAY BE LEAKING??!!  Just what part of that determination is a conundrum for the
safety office at NIST, and why couldn't NRC just hold its fire until they knew?

Guess it was just a slow Friday afternoon, eh? Please share any other thoughts
with the list.

Paul Tyree
RSO, CIS-US, Inc.
ptyree@cisusinc.com     www.cisusinc.com

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Other Nuclear Material                           |Event Number:   37197       |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|LICENSEE:  NATIONAL INST OF STANDARDS & TECH    |NOTIFICATION TIME: 14:29[EDT]|
|    CITY:  GAITHERSBURG             REGION:  1  |EVENT DATE:        07/10/2000|
|  COUNTY:                            STATE:  MD |EVENT TIME:             [EDT]|
|LICENSE#:  SNM-362               AGREEMENT:  Y  |LAST UPDATE DATE:  07/28/2000|
|  DOCKET:                                       |+----------------------------+
|                                                |PERSON          ORGANIZATION |
|                                                |MOHAMED SHANBAKY     R1      |
|                                                |SCOTT MOORE          NMSS    |
+------------------------------------------------+                             |
| NRC NOTIFIED BY:  JIM O'REAR                   |                             |
|  HQ OPS OFFICER:  STEVE SANDIN                 |                             |
+------------------------------------------------+                             |
|EMERGENCY CLASS:          N/A                   |                             |
|10 CFR SECTION:                                 |                             |
|NINF                     INFORMATION ONLY       |                             |
|                                                |                             |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

EVENT TEXT
+-------------------------------EVENT TEXT-------------------------------------+
| POTENTIALLY LEAKING SOURCE                                                   |
|                                                                              |
| A 5mCi Sr-90 source in the form of a brachytherpy seed used for              |
| investigational purposes may be leaking.  There is no known personnel        |
| exposure or spread of contamination involved.   The source was manufactured  |
| by Novoste which is located in GA .  The evaluation will continue to         |
| determine whether the source is actually leaking.                            |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+


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