Public Notice: NRC TO PRESENT FINDINGS FROM SAFETY TEAM INSPECTIONS

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

Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Office of Public Affairs -- Region III
801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532-4351
Jan Strasma (Phone: 630/829-9663)
Angela Greenman (Phone: 630/829-9662)
E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov 

RIII-99-44
October 19, 1999
NRC to Present Findings From Safety Team Inspections
at Paducah and Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plants

Preliminary findings from Nuclear Regulatory Commission special safety team
inspections of the Paducah and Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plants will be
presented on Wednesday, October 27, and Thursday, Oct. 28, respectively. Paducah
is located in Paducah, Ky., Portsmouth in Piketon, Ohio.

The inspection exit meeting for Paducah will begin at 9 a.m. at the Paducah
Information Age Park, 2000 McCracken Boulevard, in Paducah. The Portsmouth
inspection exit meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at the Ohio State University Center
at Piketon, 1864 Shyville Road, Piketon.

Both meetings will be open to the public for observation.

Members of the NRC team examined radiation protection practices and procedures
at the Paducah plant during inspections conducted during the weeks of August 30
and September 20, and at Portsmouth during the week of September 13. The NRC
decided to perform the reviews in response to concerns about health safeguards
at Paducah.
Complete reports from both inspections will be issued about 30 days after the
meetings. Those reports will be available on the NRC Web site at:
http://www.nrc.gov.
The NRC assumed regulatory jurisdiction over portions of both Paducah and
Portsmouth in 1997. The plants are operated by the United States Enrichment
Corporation (USEC) under a lease from the Department of Energy, which owns and
formerly operated them. Paducah and Portsmouth utilize a gaseous diffusion
process to enrich uranium hexafluoride gas in the uranium-235 isotope, so that
the material can be used to produce nuclear fuel for commercial nuclear power
plants.
# # # # #

-- John

"Where shall I begin, please your Majesty? he asked. Begin at the beginning the
King said, gravely, and go on till you come to the end: then stop. " 
Lewis Carroll

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