RE: The accident should Not Happen in the United States

["Boston, Robert D" <bostonrd@id.doe.gov>]

	Mr. Rozental wrote:

	[How one can understand abnormal events, as Lessons to be learned in
only one
	hour of class? Or to understand on accident in just one or two
hours? --
	This is ridiculous. 
	12 radiological accidents with fatalities  to workers, public or
patient,
	from  1981 to 1996, in which program of training we learn about?]

	We can say that this accident is not likely to happen in the U.S.
because this was a "Criticality Accident" and the last such accident to
occur in the U.S. was in 1979 in Idaho.

	In the U.S. we use, preferably, engineered safety features to
prevent the such accidents.  We also require "Double Contingency", which
ensures that at least two process errors must occur before the conditions
for an accident (let alone the accident itself) are allowed to happen.
Lastly we rely on administrative controls, which includes operator
intervention to prevent a nuclear criticality.

	The opinions expressed above are clearly my own.

Robert Boston
Nuclear Safety Analysis - DOE-ID
850 Energy Drive MS 4160
Idaho Falls, ID 83401-1563
208-526-0356 pager 6-4444 #4413 Fax 6-7414
bostonrd@id.doe.gov

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