DOE Price Anderson Actions

[Dan Burnfield <DANB@DNFSB.GOV>]

I thought this mu=ight be of interest if it has been posted
before forgive me I do not remember it.




PRICE-ANDERSON AMENDMENTS ACT (PAAA)
INFORMATION



1. PRELIMINARY NOTICE OF VIOLATION AND
PROPOSED$25,000 CIVIL PENALTY

 On February 27, 1997, the DOE Office of Enforcement and
Investigation issued a Preliminary Notice of Violation and
Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty to Lockheed Martin
Idaho Technologies Company (LMITCO) under the
Price-Anderson Amendments Act for multiple failures to
adhere to and implement the necessary administrative
controls and procedure requirements to maintain radiation
exposures as low as reasonably achievable. LMITCO is the
prime contractor for the Idaho National Engineering and
Environmental Laboratory. On July 22, 1996, these failures
resulted in five construction workers receiving radiation doses
ranging from 652 mrem to 678 mrem and a sixth worker
receiving minor skin contamination. The proposed violations
constitute a severity level II problem and a proposed civil
penalty of $25,000. (ORPS Report
ID--LITC-PHASEOUT-1996-0001, NTS Report
NTS-ID-LITC-PHASEOUT-1996-0001; letter, DOE [T. O'Toole]
to LMITCO [W. John Denson], 02/27/97)

 On July 22 1996, craft workers at the Idaho Chemical
Processing Plant were preparing a facility for
decommissioning and Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act closure. Three pipefitters were cutting and capping
process lines in an enclosed contaminated work area. Three
carpenters were erecting scaffolding in the room, and two
laborers were moving the cut pipes into another area. The
pipefitters wore airline respirators to protect against nitric
acid fumes. The carpenters and laborers, working 10 to 15
feet away, wore anti-contamination clothing but did not wear
respirators. The air in the room became contaminated when
the pipefitters cut an internally contaminated pipe with a
positive air flow. Because the airborne contamination in the
room was not monitored, the carpenters and laborers worked
unprotected in the area for up to 40 minutes. The problem
was discovered when a laborer left the room, performed a
self-survey, and detected contamination.

 A LMITCO independent investigation team reviewed the
event and concluded that planners initially recognized the
appropriate potential hazards. However, ambiguous
information in the work package and work permits, poor
communication during implementation, and
less-than-adequate oversight of activities resulted in the
failure of the workers to recognize the radiological hazards.

 LMITCO management proposed the following corrective
actions: (1) ensure work packages and associated
documents include generic hazards but highlight specific
hazards; (2) strengthen the role of radiation work permits in
defining hazards and associated engineering controls and
personnel protective equipment; (3) improve communication
among departments to ensure roles and responsibilities of
personnel are clearly defined and expectations are correctly
understood; and (4) ensure plan-of-the-day meetings or
pre-job briefings maintain focus on all hazards relative to the
significance of the hazard. DOE management considered the
LMITCO investigation and analysis of the event to be
comprehensive and contemplated partial mitigation of the
base civil penalty of $25,000. However, DOE still has
concerns about the implementation of the corrective actions
to prevent recurrence. An example of these concerns cited in
the Preliminary Notice of Violation is the January 13, 1997,
event at Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory, where a radiation control technician and facility
operator received unplanned whole body radiation doses.
DOE management considers this event was also caused by
failure to adhere to radiation protection procedures and
inadequate work planning. (OEWS 97-04, ORPS Report
ID--LITC-WASTEMNGT-1997-0001, and NTS Report
NTS-ID-LITC-WASTEMNGT-1997-0001)

 NFS reported assessments of civil penalties for radiation
protection violations under the Price-Anderson Amendments
Act in Weekly Summaries 96-30 and 96-43. On July 18,
1996, DOE assessed the Westinghouse Hanford Company
of Richland, Washington, $37,500 because a pipefitter at the
Hanford Tank Farms received a 13 rem radiation dose to his
hands while removing a highly contaminated thermocouple
from a high-level radioactive waste storage tank. (ORPS
Report RL--WHC-TANKFARM-1996-0017) On October 7,
1996, DOE assessed both Kaiser-Hill Company, the
integrating contractor at Rocky Flats, and Safe Sites of
Colorado Company, a subcontractor to Kaiser-Hill, $37,500
because radiological operations were performed contrary to
radiation work permit requirements. These operations
resulted in a release of radioactive material exceeding 1
million dpm/100 cm2 and an uptake that was 8 percent of the
DOE annual dose limit. (ORPS Reports
RFO--KHLL-SOLIDWASTE-1996-0022 and
RFO--KHLL-771OPS-1996-0063)

 The Price-Anderson Amendments Act subjects DOE
contractors to civil penalties for violations of DOE rules,
regulations, and compliance orders relating to nuclear safety
requirements. The Office of Enforcement and Investigation
may reduce a base civil penalty by up to 100 percent when a
DOE contractor promptly identifies a violation, reports it to
DOE, and undertakes timely corrective action. Additionally,
the enforcement policy allows DOE discretion to choose not
to issue a notice of violation in certain cases. The
Noncompliance Tracking System (Weekly Summaries 95-17,
95-20) provides a means for contractors to promptly report
potential non-compliances and take advantage of provisions
in the enforcement policy. Since the Noncompliance
Tracking System was instituted in December 1995, DOE
Office of Enforcement and Investigation personnel have
initiated investigation of 121 non-compliances reported by
contractors and researched 200 other events for potential
enforcement action. Since the beginning of 1996, the Office
of Enforcement and Investigation has issued three Notices of
Violations without penalties and five with penalties.

 KEYWORDS: Price-Anderson Act, ALARA, radiation
protection

 FUNCTIONAL AREAS: radiation protection, work planning