Morning Report for May 5, 2006

Headquarters Daily Report

• REGION III

REGION III

Airborne Radioactivity Released Into Containment Building During Outage Work

Licensee/Facility: NUCLEAR MANAGEMENT CO. Prairie Island 1 WELCH, Minnesota Dockets: 05000282 [1] W-2-LP License No:

Notification: MR Number: 3-2006-0006 Date: 05/03/2006 Resident Inspector Notified

Discussion:

The licensee inadvertently released airborne radioactive contaminants into the Containment Building in preparation for planned work in the Unit-1 steam generators during its refueling outage. Steam generators were not properly vented during removal of the generator man-ways in preparation for nozzle dam installation. Consequently, gaseous contaminants within the steam generators were exhausted directly into the Containment Building atmosphere. The Containment Building was evacuated until radiological conditions were restored approximately 12-hours later through the containment building atmosphere cleanup system. There was no radiological release to the environment. Approximately 100 workers present in the Containment Building were externally contaminated and had small intakes of radioactive material composed principally of radioiodines. Preliminary results show that radiation doses from the intakes were less than one percent of applicable regulatory limits. Workers were decontaminated to remove external contamination prior to being released from the plant.

Regional Action: Two Region III Radiation Specialists will review the circumstances and the radiological consequences of the incident during an onsite inspection the week of May 8, 2006.

Accession Numbers:

Accession No	Accession Date
ML061250255	05/02/2006

Contacts:

Name	Office Abbrev	Phone No	E-Mail
SLAWINSKI, WAYNE J	R3	(630) 829-9820	WJS2@nrc.gov