re:radiation exposure at st lucie

[Paul_Prichard@DOM.COM]

This event was more than likely discovered by the plant staff.  "Losing

containment" is not uncommon (though highly undesirable).  It usually

results from poor planning or missing something in the details of a work

evolution involving high levels of radioactive contamination.  Airborne

radioactivity is dispersed throughout the containment so that workers on

other levels of the building are exposed.  The airborne monitors would give

the first indication followed by personnel contamination alarms at the

containment exit.  Workers would be assessed for internal contamination in

a whole body counter.  For situations such as this, a significance

determination is performed in accordance with NRC guidelines to determine

if the event qualifies as an unintended exposure occurrence (exposures

above limits contained within the NRC program).  We would notify the

resident NRC inspector and probably the NRC inspector responsible for

overseeing our Radiation Safety program.  That the NRC is "investigating"

means anything from following up on St. Lucie's evaluation of the event to

sending in a special team to investigate.  The latter does not seem to be

implied from the story.  What probably occurred at St. Lucie was a

"degradation or failure of radiation barriers".   It will take a few days

for the internal dose assessments to be complete.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just an analog guy in a digital world.

Paul Prichard

Millstone Station

Paul_Prichard@dom.com

(860) 437-2806



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