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NRC Event Report
I noticed the attached NRC event report for a contaminated package. All
hp's who receive radioactive material, especially from abroad, should be
aware of this.
I have one question regarding the licensee response. They suspect that
the contamination is tritium, and found contaminated carpeting in the
delivery vehicle. Why did they decon by vacuuming? No details are
provided, but I assume that they used a commercial vacuum cleaner. This
would have very efficiently transformed surface contamination into
airborne contamination, since the vacuum cleaner filter would not retain
the tritiated vapor. The only thing I can think of is that it was
vacuumed through a bubbler or drying agent (e.g. silica gel). This
would work IFF the tritium is present as water vapor.
Would the licensee be willing to provide more details on this?
The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.
Curies forever.
Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com
General Information or Other |Event Number:
39539 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| REP ORG: CALIFORNIA RADIATION CONTROL PRGM |NOTIFICATION DATE:
01/27/2003|
|LICENSEE: ISOTOPE PRODUCTS LABORATORIES |NOTIFICATION TIME:
15:16[EST]|
| CITY: BURBANK REGION: 4 |EVENT DATE:
01/23/2003|
| COUNTY: LOS ANGELES STATE: CA |EVENT TIME:
16:30[PST]|
|LICENSE#: CA-1509 AGREEMENT: Y |LAST UPDATE DATE:
01/27/2003|
| DOCKET:
|+----------------------------+
| |PERSON
ORGANIZATION |
| |WILLIAM JONES
R4 |
| |FRED BROWN
NMSS |
+------------------------------------------------+TIM MCGINTY
IRO |
| NRC NOTIFIED BY: ROBERT GREGER |CREWS
NRC |
| HQ OPS OFFICER: GERRY WAIG |JOHN HICKEY
NMSS |
+------------------------------------------------+
|
|EMERGENCY CLASS: NON EMERGENCY
| |
|10 CFR SECTION:
| |
|NAGR AGREEMENT STATE
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
EVENT TEXT
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| AGREEMENT STATE REPORT - CONTAMINATED
PACKAGE |
|
|
| The following is taken from a facsimile from the State of
California: |
|
|
| "On 1/24/03 the RSO [Radiation Safety Officer] @ IPL [Isotope
Products |
| Laboratories] reported their receipt of a contaminated package. The
package |
| had been picked up from LAX & delivered to IPL on 1/23 @ 2:25 pm by
Kamino |
| Int'l Transport, 2580 Santa Fe, Redondo Beach, contact person
[DELETED]. The |
| package was wiped upon receipt, and received the results approximately
4:30 |
| pm. The RSO was notified the next morning. The contamination appears
to be |
| H-3, although the licensee needs to perform an energy calibration on
their |
| liquid scintillation counter to verify both this and their
quantification of |
| the package wipes. It appears that all sides of the package
were |
| contaminated, at up to approximately 100,000 dpm/wipe. The latest
wipes |
| measured up to approximately 40,000
dpm/wipe. |
|
|
| "The package came from a company in Switzerland called RC Tritec AG,
who is |
| a distributor for a Russian company (unknown name at this time).
IPL |
| believes that the box was trans-shipped, & was never actually at
Tritec, but |
| they're still trying to get Lufthansa's paperwork. IPL is also trying
to get |
| info on the Russian
company. |
|
|
| "IPL had the delivery truck return to IPL, & they found a small area
of |
| contamination, about 12 X 10 inches, on the carpet, where the package
was |
| located, of about 800 dpm/wipe. After vacuuming, they got nothing.
About 11 |
| other wipes in the truck were negative. They checked the driver's
gloves- |
| there's no removable contamination. All wipes @ IPL's Shipping Dept
were |
| negative. They think there was at least one other package on the truck
that |
| was destined for an electronics company, but they're still trying to
get |
| info on that. There was at least one other package for IPL on the
truck that |
| was not contaminated (they're checking to see if it had come from the
same |
| Russian
company). |
|
|
| "Note: Assuming that the contamination is H-3, the dose consequences
of |
| 100,000 dpm/wipe are approximately equivalent to the dose consequences
of |
| 2.5 dpm/wipe of
Cs-137." |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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