Re: Corrosion of fixed gauges

["Walter Cofer" <cofer@nettally.com>]

George -

Over the past decade, my agency has been notified of fixed nuclear gauges at
two different paper mills in Florida that were heavily damaged due to
exposure to corrosive chemicals.  In one case the gauge's shielding was
compromised to the point where the source dropped from its design position
(but fortunately remained within the source housing).  I seriously doubt
that the conditions the two gauges were subjected to were within design
specifications, so I'm not sure if this information is helpful.  If you
would like additional details, feel free to contact me at my office.

Walter Cofer
Rad. Materials Section
Florida Bureau of Radiation Control
tel: (850) 245-4545
walter_cofer@doh.state.fl.us

-----Original Message-----
From: cicottegeorge <cicottegeorge@email.msn.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Thursday, October 05, 2000 2:04 PM
Subject: Corrosion of fixed gauge


>Does anyone on RADSAFE have any anecdotal knowledge of fixed gauges that
>experienced extraordinary corrosion under environmental conditions that
>appeared to be well within those discussed in the registration?  We ran
into
>an inactive registration-type gauge (manufacturer not specified at this
time
>because we're waiting for them to figure out whether they need to make a 10
>CFR 21 report) in the field during a routine inspection that had such heavy
>corrosion that the identification label was actually lifted from the
surface
>of the back of the gauge (the source is installed from the back with a fill
>plug of Pb and W or steel backing plate, and the metal label is
>riveted/affixed with tamper-proof retainers over the plate).
>
>The gauge was installed about 16 years ago, and was positioned in exactly
>the same environmental conditions as another gauge of the same model and
>manufacture date, just a few feet away, and we hope to find some unknown
>environmental factor if the manufacturer can't find an actual construction
>defect.
>
>George R. Cicotte
>unofficial
>
>
>
>
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