Local MD company targeted by state

["Jacobus, John (OD)" <JJacobus@exchange.nih.gov>]

Md. Targets Maker Of Nuclear Material
Montgomery Firm Told to Halt Process

By Fern Shen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 17, 1999; Page B03 

A Montgomery County company that produces radioactive material for medical and
other uses was ordered by Maryland officials this week to shut down part of its
core operations immediately and to remove all radioactive materials by 2004.

Neighborhood activists, who have been battling Neutron Products Inc. for
decades, hailed the state's action as its toughest yet. State regulators have
fined the company for violating operating rules, but this week was the first
time officials told the company to permanently shut down parts of its business. 

Jackson A. Ransohoff, president of Neutron Products, said yesterday that the
state's action is a death sentence for the 40-year-old Dickerson company and
vowed to fight the Maryland Department of the Environment in court.

"Their consent order is a joke," Ransohoff said. "We will go out of business if
we agree to this."

Ransohoff said that although Neutron has other operations, including chemical
production, it cannot afford to divest itself of its nuclear products. "How many
companies do you know that can lose 25 percent of their revenues and survive?"
he asked.

Activists were optimistic that the decommissioning order will do more than any
state action so far to protect residents from Neutron, which has been cited
often for safety and procedural violations. 

"I think the state will enforce this order. . . . This time it really means
business," said Carol Oberdorfer, of the Dickerson Community Association, one of
several groups that in the past have accused the state and county government of
failing to properly regulate Neutron.

"There's been a sea change in their attitude," she said. "This is really the
biggest deal to come along for us."

Ransohoff said Neutron will appeal the state order, which sets forth steps the
company is required to take to clean up radioactive materials at the site. The
company also was told to suspend immediately the production of radioactive
material used for commercial food irradiation and medical equipment.

"They may only possess and store that material on site," said Roland Fletcher,
manager of the radiological health program for the Department of the
Environment.

According to the state, the consent order was issued after Neutron failed to
meet a deadline Tuesday to prove that it has adequate financial assets to cover
the cost of cleaning up the part of its facility that produces cobalt for
medical and food-irradiation devices.

State law requires Neutron to have set aside $750,000 to cover the cost of
eventually decommissioning those operations.

State officials are still reviewing whether Neutron has enough assets to cover
$150,000 in cleanup costs for other parts of the business. "Their filing came
very late," Fletcher said. "We are still reviewing it."

Neutron has yet to comply with a 1994 court order requiring the company to
enclose the courtyard where the radioactive element cobalt-60 was melted. That
order, which put a halt to cobalt melting at Neutron, was accompanied by a
$75,000 fine, then the largest state fine ever for radiation-control violations.

The County Planning Board last summer rejected Neutron's request for a waiver of
zoning regulations to permit construction of the enclosure.

Ransohoff said that the state historically has overregulated his company and
that the latest action amounts to an illegal "confiscation" of his business. 


© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company


The above comments do not reflect mine, my spouse or my employer. -- John

John Jacobus, Health Physicist
National Institutes of Health
Radiation Safety Branch, Building 21, Room 238
21 Wilson Drive, MSC 6780
Bethesda, MD  20892-6780
Phone:  301-496-5774
Fax:      301-496-3544
E-mail:   jjacobus@exchange.nih.gov (W)
            jenday@ix.netcom.com (H)
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