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Safety Culture:"At this time, we plan to pay the fine and move on to implement our correctiveaction"



 
 
http://www.tribnet.com/news/local/story/1695714p-1812649c.html
The News Tribune - Tacoma, WA
(Published 12:30AM, August 31st, 2002)
 
Company fined $15,000 for uranium oxide mistake
Linda Ashton; The Associated Press
 
YAKIMA - Framatome ANP Inc. will pay a $15,000 civil penalty imposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday for violating safety rules designed to prevent uncontrolled nuclear reactions.
 
The NRC levied the fine in response to an April incident at the company's Richland plant, which makes fuel assemblies for commercial nuclear reactors.

In that case, an employee poured radioactive uranium oxide powder into a 45-gallon barrel that was missing a safety barrier to prevent a criticality, an uncontrolled nuclear reaction with bursts of potentially fatal radiation.

No radiation accident occurred as a result of the mistake, which was reported by the employee.
 
"At this time, we plan to pay the fine and move on to implement our corrective action," said Chris Powers, director of quality assurance for Framatome. "We don't intend to challenge the imposition of the civil penalty."
 
The standard industry practice is to have two or three barriers in place to prevent a criticality from occurring.

Barriers can take a variety of forms. Some are chemical, such as the removal of all moisture from the material in use, or the addition of an element that would prevent a nuclear reaction. A barrier can also be physical, such as a wall that would keep materials separate, or a container that keeps them a specified distance apart.

The idea is that even if one barrier fails, the others would prevent a criticality.

In this case, there was one barrier: The uranium oxide was in a dry, powder form. But a second one, an assembly containing boron, which absorbs neutrons to prevent a criticality, was missing.

The NRC has ordered a number of safety changes, or corrective actions, which are being phased in at the 650-worker plant.

Framatome will improve training and testing for operators, while working to make instructions and rules simpler and easier to understand, Powers said.
 
(Published 12:30AM, August 31st, 2002)
 
Jose Julio Rozental
joseroze@netvision.net.il
Israel