Re[2]: drill scenario ???

[Ruth Weiner <rfweine@sandia.gov>]

     Unrealistic scenarios for drills are used in areas other than power 
     plants.  There is a series of transportation exercises for called 
     TRUEX (Transuranic Waste  Exercise) that I have participated in, and 
     one scenario was " a 55-gallon drum of plutonium falls off the back of 
     a pickup truck and bursts open."  Talk about unrealistic!  This sort 
     of scenario is the only way to get anybody contaminated enough in a 
     transportation accident to bring any counting and decon procedures 
     into play.  We also got the disclaimer "We know this would never 
     happen but pretend it does..."
     
     Ruth F. Weiner, Ph. D.
     Transportation Systems Department
     Sandia National Laboratories
     Mail Stop 0718
     P. O. Box 5800
     Albuquerque, NM 87185-0718
     505-844-4791
     505-844-0244 (fax)
     rfweine@sandia.gov
     
     
     Just my own opinion of course.


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: drill scenario ???
Author:  Steven.Rima@doegjpo.com at hubsmtp
Date:    1/12/98 9:19 AM


     Bruce,
     
     Just because it's in a drill scenario DOES NOT make it true or even 
     remotely possible. In a past life, I've been involved in developing 
     several drill scenarios at nuclear power plants. Believe me, many of 
     them were beyond credible. In order to have an initiating 
     condition/accident, get to a General Emergency, recover, and complete 
     the drill in 1 day demands some level of "unreasonableness" in the 
     scenario.
     
     As one example, I worker for several years at Fort Saint Vrain, where 
     a General Emergency was considered impossible in the Final Safety 
     Analysis Report. We applied to the NRC for an exemption from the 
     requirement to drill to a General Emergency; they denied it. Suffice 
     it to say that the drill scenarios we developed had very little 
     technical basis or credibility. (As a drill controller, I kept having 
     to tell the operator "I know that's not possible, just act like it 
     is...")
     
     I also have a computer generated graph, done by the fuel engineer at a 
     nuclear power plant, showing the dose rate from a spent fuel bundle 
     versus distance. I don't have it handy right now, but as I recall, once 
     you were any distance away at all, it wasn't that high. As someone else 
     already pointed out, the inverse square law applies after you are a few 
     yards away, so it's easy to calculate that the dose rate at 10 miles 
     isn't even measurable, let alone lethal! If you're interested in a copy 
     of the graph and the basis for it, let me know and I'll dig it out and 
     fax you a copy.
     
     Steven D. Rima, CHP
     Manager, Health Physics and Industrial Hygiene 
     MACTEC-ERS, LLC
     steven.rima@doegjpo.com
     
     
     My opinion only; I wouldn't ask anyone else to claim it...
     
     
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: drill scenario ???
Author:  Bruce Busby <bbusby@umich.edu> at Internet 
Date:    1/11/98 3:06 PM
     
     
Hi all,
     
I have received an interesting e-mail from someone who claims to have been 
involved in a the following drill scenario. I am interested in seeing if 
the scenario was realistic or not. Anyone having comments, please send 
them to me at babusby@aol.com. Thank you
     
The following are taken from this person's e-mail:
     
--------------------cut and pasted----------------------
     
     
Subject: Nothing like showing a little bias?
     
Why don't you explain the problems that would be caused by exposing a 
spent-fuel rod to the air for just a few minutes. I was involved in a 
drill involving such a scenario." A crain operator supposedly lifted a 
spent rod from the fuel pit, instantly killing all personell in the 
plant. It was estimated that lethal doses of radiation were found as far 
out as 10 miles. But this was only a well performed drill.
     
--------------cut----------------------------
     
Subject: RE: Nothing like showing a little bias?
     
This scenario was performed at "Zion Nuclear Power Plant", in Zion, IL by 
the utility in cooperation with the N.R.C. They thought that the scenario 
was very realistic since spent-fuel rods are so hot that their radioactive 
half life is around 1000 years and there rem readings are in the thousands 
of rem.
     
------cut-----------------
     
     
     
Bruce Busby
bbusby@umich.edu
BABusby@aol.com