| U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Operations Center Event Reports For
07/11/2006 - 07/12/2006 ** EVENT NUMBERS ** |
 | General Information or Other | Event Number: 42200 | Rep Org: ALABAMA RADIATION CONTROL
Licensee: GOODWIN, MILLS & CAWOOD, INC
Region: 1
City: BIRMINGHAM State: AL
County:
License #: 1404
Agreement: Y
Docket:
NRC Notified By: DAVID TURBERVILLE
HQ OPS Officer: JOHN KNOKE | Notification Date: 12/13/2005
Notification Time: 14:00 [ET]
Event Date: 12/12/2005
Event Time: 18:30 [CST]
Last Update Date: 07/11/2006 | Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
AGREEMENT STATE
| Person (Organization):
ANTHONY DIMITRIADIS (R1)
MICHELE BURGESS (NMSS)
TAS email (TAS)
|
| This material event contains a "Less than Cat 3" level of radioactive material. | Event Text STOLEN MOISTURE DENSITY TROXLER GAUGE
The licensee provided the following information via facsimile:
"On the evening of December 12, 2005 at approximately 6:30 pm CST, a Troxler model 3440 moisture density gauge, serial number 503557, containing 8 millicuries of Cs-137 and 40 millicuries of Am-241/Be was stolen from the back of a pickup truck at a Home Depot parking lot in Birmingham, Alabama. The licensee, Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood, Inc., notified the Birmingham Police Department and the Alabama Office of Radiation Control. The Alabama Office of Radiation Control advised the Alabama Emergency Management Agency of the event. Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood, Inc. is authorized to possess and use radioactive material under their Alabama Radioactive Material License No. 1404. The licensee representative stated that the transport case was not locked and chained in the bed of the truck as required. The licensee representative did state that the gauge shutter was locked. A pressure meter was stolen in addition to the gauge. The Agency advised the licensee to consider issuing a press release and a reward. The licensee has been able to view surveillance tapes from Home Depot which appear to indicate that the gauge was stolen by individuals riding around the parking lot looking for unsecured items to steal in the back of trucks. The licensee has provided the Birmingham Police Department with a picture of the gauge and is checking with the local businesses and pawn shops. This is all the information that this Agency has at this time and is current as of 11:20 am CST."
Alabama Event 05-70.
* * * UPDATE AT 0931 EDT ON 7/11/06 FROM DAVID A. TUBERVILLE TO S. SANDIN * * *
The following information was received as an update via fax:
"SUBJECT: Found Gauge Containing Radioactive Material. - Alabama Event 05-70 - UPDATE.
"On the morning of July 10, 2006, the Alabama Office of Radiation Control was contacted by Alabama Emergency Management Agency concerning a container found behind a convenience store in Irondale, Alabama that had radioactive material markings. The Irondale Fire Department was at the scene. The item was determined to be a Troxler model 3440 moisture density gauge within its transport container. It was determined that this gauge is the one that was stolen on the evening of December 12, 2005 from the back of a Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood, Inc. pickup truck at a Home Depot parking lot in Birmingham, Alabama. Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood, Inc. is authorized to possess and use radioactive material under their Alabama Radioactive Material License No. 1404. The licensee was notified of the found gauge and took possession of the device that morning. The licensee representative advised the Alabama Office of Radiation Control that the device was intact and confirmed that the device was the one stolen on December 12, 2005. The licensee representative was advised to perform a leak test and obtain the results before placing the gauge back in service. Also, the licensee representative was requested to submit a written report to the Agency describing the event with results of the leak test.
"It was noted that the serial number for the gauge found (14822) did not match with the serial number of the gauge stolen (503557). The serial numbers were confirmed with the licensee representative who indicated that the 503557 serial number was inaccurate. The correct serial number for this incident should be 14822."
Notified R1DO (Meyer), NMSS (Morell) and ILTAB via email.
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "LESS THAN CAT 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Sources that are "Less than IAEA Category 3 sources," are either sources that are very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury. Some of these sources, such as moisture density gauges or thickness gauges that are Category 4, the amount of unshielded radioactive material, if not safely managed or securely protected, could possibly - although it is unlikely - temporarily injure someone who handled it or were otherwise in contact with it, or who were close to it for a period of many weeks. |
| General Information or Other | Event Number: 42688 | Rep Org: LOUISIANA RADIATION PROTECTION DIV
Licensee: GLOBAL X-RAY AND TESTING CORP
Region: 4
City: AMELIA State: LA
County:
License #: LA-0577-L01
Agreement: Y
Docket:
NRC Notified By: RICHARD PENROD
HQ OPS Officer: MARK ABRAMOVITZ | Notification Date: 07/06/2006
Notification Time: 15:15 [ET]
Event Date: 06/12/2006
Event Time: [CDT]
Last Update Date: 07/06/2006 | Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
AGREEMENT STATE
| Person (Organization):
GREG MORELL (NMSS)
GREG PICK (R4)
| Event Text AGREEMENT STATE - RADIOGRAPHY SOURCE DISCONNECTED FROM CAMERA
The State provided the following information via facsimile:
"Global X-Ray had a source disconnect at the McDermott Fabrication Facility in Amelia, LA on June 12, 2006. The radiographers were performing routine radiography on some welded pipe sections. After several exposures, the radiographers began having trouble with the crankout. The radiographers realized that the source had not come back to the shielded position at the end of the exposure. The radiographers followed Global X-Ray & Testing Operating and Emergency Procedures. The radiographers reset their boundaries to a 2 mR/hr level and maintained surveillance and called the office. The source was found in the source guide tube. The source was retrieved and returned to the exposure device with minimal exposure during retrieval. Both the exposure device and controls were sent to SPEC for evaluation. It appears that there was enough wear on the control adapter and the drive cable connector to allow a disconnect. Global ruled out a source misconnect being the problem due to the fact that the film that was exposed prior to the crank out trouble was developed and came out just as it should. There were no excessive exposures to the radiographers. The radiographers dosimeters read 10-12 mR and 35-40 mR. The retrieval process produced an exposure of 85 mR. The device that was involved with the disconnect is a SPEC 150 camera with serial number 139. The source in the camera was an 82 Ci [Curie] source of Ir-192 manufactured by SPEC with model number G-60 and serial number ND-1002."
LA Event Report Number: LA060012 |
| General Information or Other | Event Number: 42689 | Rep Org: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
Licensee: BEN TAUB GENERAL HOSPITAL
Region: 4
City: HOUSTON State: TX
County:
License #: 01303
Agreement: Y
Docket:
NRC Notified By: ART TUCKER
HQ OPS Officer: MARK ABRAMOVITZ | Notification Date: 07/07/2006
Notification Time: 15:43 [ET]
Event Date: 06/18/2006
Event Time: 04:40 [CDT]
Last Update Date: 07/07/2006 | Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
AGREEMENT STATE
| Person (Organization):
GREG MORELL (NMSS)
GREG PICK (R4)
| Event Text AGREEMENT STATE - MISPLACED SOURCE
"At 0634 hrs on June 20, 2006, [the Director of the Texas Department of Health] received a call on the way to the office from the Director of Radiology for Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston, TX. He relayed brief details of a recovered source that was either taken out of a patient or never placed in an after loading appliance utilized for the treatment of a cervical cancer patient. In the words of the Radiation Safety Officer with proper names redacted:
"On Sunday, June 18, 2006 at 4:40 am a Cesium-137 source, 3M model 6501(6D6C-CA), serial # 06965, with an activity of approximately 17 mCi [milliCuries] was noted to be missing from a patient who was undergoing a tandem and ovoid implant for cervical cancer. The patient had applicator placement (uterine tandem and two Fletcher ovoids) at Ben Taub General Hospital (BTGH), on Friday 6/16/2006. The Cesium sources (4 in all; 2 in the tandem and 1 each in the ovoid) had been placed in the patient by the Radiation Oncologist at 3:40 pm for a 37 hour implant. When the right ovoid source was noted to be missing at the time of unloading; the patient, room, Nursing Unit 6B of the hospital, and the route of transport of the sources from the BTGH Radiotherapy Department to the patient's room were surveyed using both a sodium iodide detector and a conventional air-ionization type survey meter by both the Radiation Oncologist and Medical Physicist. The BTGH Radiation Safety Officer was notified at 8:20 am Sunday morning of the apparent missing source. Upon further investigation, it was learned that the bed sheets of the patient had been changed at 3 pm on Saturday, 6/17/2006, and this dirty linen was placed in the linen cart on 6B. It was subsequently taken to a truck at the BTGH loading dock and transported to the Texas Medical Center Laundry facility. On Monday morning, 6/19/06, the director of this facility was contacted and subsequently the facility was surveyed. The Cs-137 source was recovered at 10:30 a.m., from the third floor and transported back to the BTGH Radiotherapy Department using an appropriately shielded container.
"The names of all the persons who potentially may have come into contact with the Cesium source were obtained and notified. This list included thirty-five [35] individuals of both hospital and laundry services personnel.
"Upon further review by staff in assembling the documents for the incident file, the attachments to the June 26, 2006 e-mail was examined at 1400hrs on July 7, 2006. At that time DSHS staff realized that this was a lost/found source with quantities >1,000 X Appendix C value requiring immediate reporting to NMED. However, staff reviewed the operational setting and in the absence of the licensee's report demonstrating an exposure exceeding of 100mrem to a member of the public, the incident may not be reportable. Further investigation is on-going."
Texas Incident: I-8350 |
| Power Reactor | Event Number: 42693 | Facility: PERRY
Region: 3 State: OH
Unit: [1] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [1] GE-6
NRC Notified By: ROBERT KIDDER
HQ OPS Officer: BILL GOTT | Notification Date: 07/08/2006
Notification Time: 09:22 [ET]
Event Date: 07/08/2006
Event Time: 09:18 [EDT]
Last Update Date: 07/11/2006 | Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(2)(xi) - OFFSITE NOTIFICATION
| Person (Organization):
KENNETH RIEMER (R3)
|
| Unit | SCRAM Code | RX CRIT | Initial PWR | Initial RX Mode | Current PWR | Current RX Mode | | 1 | N | Y | 66 | Power Operation | 66 | Power Operation | Event Text OFFSITE NOTIFICATION - EXCEEDED LIMIT FOR SUSPENDED SOLIDS IN DISCHARGE
"On 6/29/06 at 1630 Neutralization Basin A was pumped to Lake Erie. On 7/7/06 the analysis of suspended solids for this discharge was completed with results outside of the daily limit. Results for the suspended solids for the basin discharge was 142 ppm with a limit of 100 ppm. State of Ohio EPA was notified for this non-compliance. This 4 hour notification is being made due to the notification to the State of Ohio EPA. Notification to the Ohio EPA was made at 0918 on 7/08/06. Specific. Reporting details required by Part 12.A are as follows:
"Discharge occurred- 6/29/06 at 16:30; Discovered 7/7/06 at 14:38 (analysis reported by First Energy Beta Drive Lab)
Approximate amount 18,300 gallons; 7.94 Ph; 142 ppm Total Suspended Solids [backup sample 148 ppm]"
The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.
* * * UPDATE AT 1007 EDT ON 7/11/06 FROM JIM CASE TO S. SANDIN * * *
"This 4 hour notification is being made due to the additional notification to the State of Ohio EPA.
"This was follow-up information regarding event number 42693 ('Offsite Notification - exceeded limit for suspended solids in discharge'). On 7/10/06 final data analysis for NPDES Monthly Report was obtained and the 6/29/06 exceedance resulted in an exceedance in the monthly average of total suspended solids (TSS). Results for monthly average suspended solids were 44.2 ppm with a limit of 30 ppm. State of Ohio EPA was notified of this non-compliance at 0925 on 7/11/06."
The licensee informed the NRC Resident Inspector. Notified R3DO (Steve Orth). |
| General Information or Other | Event Number: 42694 | Rep Org: NC DIV OF RADIATION PROTECTION
Licensee: APAC, ATLANTIC, INC.
Region: 1
City: HICKORY State: NC
County:
License #: 018-0967-3
Agreement: Y
Docket:
NRC Notified By: GRANT MILLS
HQ OPS Officer: STEVE SANDIN | Notification Date: 07/08/2006
Notification Time: 22:00 [ET]
Event Date: 07/08/2006
Event Time: 05:00 [EDT]
Last Update Date: 07/10/2006 | Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
AGREEMENT STATE
| Person (Organization):
PAMELA HENDERSON (R1)
E. WILLIAM BRACH (NMSS)
ILTAB (e-mailed) (NSIR)
|
| This material event contains a "Less than Cat 3" level of radioactive material. | Event Text AGREEMENT STATE REPORT INVOLVING A STOLEN TROXLER MOISTURE DENSITY GAUGE
The following information was received via fax:
"Licensee: APAC Atlantic, Inc, Asheville Division / Hickory Branch
"Event Date &Time: 08 July 2006 between 02:00 and 05:00 am
"Report Date & Time: 08 July 2006, 15:00
"Event Location: Hickory, NC
"Event Type: Stolen Portable Nuclear Gauge
"Notifications: The following organizations have been notified, the FBI, the N.C Highway Patrol, Iredale County Sheriff, N.C. Division of Emergency Management.
"Event Description: N.C. Radiation Protection Section was notified on 08 July 2006 by the designee RSO for APAC Atlantic, Inc Asheville Division / Hickory Branch of the theft of a Troxler Electronics Model 4640 B portable moisture density gauge (Serial No. 765). The gauge contained one sealed source: Cesium-137, 9 millicuries.
"The device was stored in a locked steel transport box attached to the bed of a White 2006 Dodge Dakota, license plate no. VV2525, with 'APAC' signage on the doors. In addition to being locked in the steel over-pack, the gauge is locked in the required transportation container and the operating mechanism is locked. However, keys to all three locks are in the truck. The truck was stolen in the early morning hours from the licensee's gated and locked facility.
"The Radiation Protection Section is working with the licensee and local law enforcement to recover the gauge.
"Media Attention: N.C. Radiation Protection has not received any media attention as of this report. A potential news release is pending."
NC Incident No. 06-20.
* * * UPDATE AT 0415 ON 07/10/06 FROM LEE COX TO W. GOTT * * *
In the evening of 07/09/06 the abandoned gauge was found undamaged and in its case in a parking lot in Hickory NC. The source rod was still locked in the stowed position.
Notified R1DO (P. Henderson), NMSS EO (Brach) and emailed to ILTAB.
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "LESS THAN CAT 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Sources that are "Less than IAEA Category 3 sources," are either sources that are very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury. Some of these sources, such as moisture density gauges or thickness gauges that are Category 4, the amount of unshielded radioactive material, if not safely managed or securely protected, could possibly - although it is unlikely - temporarily injure someone who handled it or were otherwise in contact with it, or who were close to it for a period of many weeks. |
| Power Reactor | Event Number: 42699 | Facility: CALVERT CLIFFS
Region: 1 State: MD
Unit: [1] [2] [ ]
RX Type: [1] CE,[2] CE
NRC Notified By: JAY GAINES
HQ OPS Officer: STEVE SANDIN | Notification Date: 07/11/2006
Notification Time: 11:28 [ET]
Event Date: 07/06/2006
Event Time: 16:35 [EDT]
Last Update Date: 07/11/2006 | Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(2)(xi) - OFFSITE NOTIFICATION
| Person (Organization):
GLENN MEYER (R1)
|
| Unit | SCRAM Code | RX CRIT | Initial PWR | Initial RX Mode | Current PWR | Current RX Mode | | 1 | N | Y | 100 | Power Operation | 100 | Power Operation | | 2 | N | Y | 100 | Power Operation | 100 | Power Operation | Event Text OFFSITE NOTIFICATION REQUIRED BY NPDES TO STATE OF MARYLAND DUE TO SIGNIFICANT JELLYFISH INFLUX
"On 7/6/06 a significant jelly fish influx required securing 11 Circulating Water Pump on Unit 1 and 26 Circulating Water Pump on Unit 2. Both Units remained at 100 % power,
"On 7/7/06 Unit 1 was downpowered to 41 % due to similar jelly fish influx and subsequently returned to 100 % power.
NPDES permit requires state notification of any significant aquatic impact on the plant.
"NRC Resident Inspector has been notified." |
| Power Reactor | Event Number: 42700 | Facility: CALVERT CLIFFS
Region: 1 State: MD
Unit: [1] [2] [ ]
RX Type: [1] CE,[2] CE
NRC Notified By: JAY GAINES
HQ OPS Officer: STEVE SANDIN | Notification Date: 07/11/2006
Notification Time: 11:28 [ET]
Event Date: 07/11/2006
Event Time: 09:30 [EDT]
Last Update Date: 07/11/2006 | Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
OTHER UNSPEC REQMNT
| Person (Organization):
GLENN MEYER (R1)
|
| Unit | SCRAM Code | RX CRIT | Initial PWR | Initial RX Mode | Current PWR | Current RX Mode | | 1 | N | Y | 100 | Power Operation | 100 | Power Operation | | 2 | N | Y | 100 | Power Operation | 100 | Power Operation | Event Text 24-HOUR REPORT OF SIGNIFICANT ENVIRONMENTAL EVENT INVOLVING UNUSUAL FISH KILL
"Unusual fish kill on both unit's intake trash racks. Approximately 150-200 Cow Nosed Rays died on the intake racks. The apparent cause was low oxygen levels in the bay water. This event is reportable per Tech Spec Appendix 13, Section. 4.1 for significant environmental events.
"The licensee contacted the Maryland Department of the environment as a courtesy.
"The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector." | |