Part 21 Report - 1995-167

ACCESSION #: 9505180293

Syncor                                  Syncor International Corporation
The Service Difference

March 23, 1995

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Document Control Desk
11555 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD  20852-2738

RE:  NRC Event #28561 - Written Report pursuant to 10 CFR 30.50(c)(2)

Dear NRC Representative:

Enclosed is a written follow-up to NRC Event #28561 which was reported to
Mr. McGinty at the NRC Operations Center on March 20, 1995.  The reported
event was a fume hood failure at Syncor's Swartz Creek, MI,
radiopharmacy, NRC License #21-21141-01MD.

Following is a summary of events surrounding the failure of Swartz
Creek's main fume hood on March 20, 1995.  All times are Pacific Time
unless otherwise specified:

2300      Swartz Creek's pharmacy manager, Bill Thompson, noticed that
3/19/95   the fume hood was not running at 2 AM (Eastern Time).

0530      Bill Thompson located an available electrician to repair the
3/20/95   fume hood.  The electrician determined that a new motor was
          needed and the appropriate equipment was ordered.

0830      Tara Domiter (Health Physicist, Chatsworth, CA) returned Bill
          Thompson's phone mail message.  Mr. Thompson informed Tara that
          his fume hood was down.  He explained that it was not
          functioning when he arrived for work at approximately 2 AM
          (Eastern Time) on March 20, 1995.  There were approximately 52
          mCi of xenon-133 and 300 mCi of iodine-131 on hand in the
          pharmacy at the time.  Tara Domiter advised Mr. Thompson to
          shift to a daily air sampling frequency pending resolution.

          Based on air sampling results, the average restricted area air
          concentration of iodine-131 over the sampling period (less than
          7 days) was less than 1% of the Derived Air Concentration.
          Syncor is confident that the restricted area air concentration
          did not exceed this amount, since any iodine picked up by the
          sample filter and back decayed over half the sampling time
          would have exaggerated the effects of a recent release.

          The maximum unrestricted area iodine-131 air concentration was
          approximately 436% of the effluent release limit over the
          sampling period from 3/16/95 to 3/21/95.  Syncor is confident
          that the unrestricted area air concentration did not exceed
          this amount, since any iodine picked up by the sample filter
          and back decayed over half the sampling time would have
          exaggerated the effects of a recent release.  When averaged
          over one year, this value would be well below the annual
          Effluent Limit.  The maximum iodine-131 air concentration
          decreased to approximately 25% of the effluent release limit on
          3/22/95.

     20001 Prairie Street o Chatsworth, CA o 91311 o (818) 886-7400

          Based on the xenon-133 inventory and assuming that the fume
          hood was down for about 37 hours:

                              Equations omitted.

          However, this room has a supply vent rated at 100 CFM.
          Revising the calculations based on this flow rate:

                              Equations omitted.

          Since the supply vent is rated at 100 CFM of air flow in the
          room, the air concentration of xenon-133 in both the restricted
          and unrestricted areas is negligible.

1346      Tara Domiter phoned the NRC Operations Center to report the
          incident, and made a report to Mr. McGinty (Event #28561).

1215      A new motor was installed and the fume hood has been operating
3/21/95   properly since 3:15 PM (Eastern Time) on March 21, 1995.  We
          estimate that the fume hood was down for 37 hours.

If you have any questions or require additional information, please
contact Tara Domiter at 800/999-9098, X-4615.  Thank you for your time
and consideration.

Sincerely,

SYNCOR INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION

Katherine Seifert, R.Ph., BCNP
Corporate Radiation Safety Officer

cc:  Bill Thompson, R.Ph., Manager, Swartz Creek, MI
     Materials Inspection Section Chief, USNRC Region III, Lisle, IL

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