Event Notification Report for December 12, 2005

VIOLATION OF SPENT FUEL HANDLING CONDITIONS

"This report is being made pursuant to a reporting requirement specified in Certificate of Compliance Number 1015, Appendix B2.1, which states that if any fuel specification or loading conditions of this section are violated that the affected fuel assemblies be placed in a safe condition; that the NRC Operations Center be notified within 24 hours and that a special report be submitted within 30 days.

"On 12/12/2005, fuel handlers were loading a NAC-UMS canister with spent fuel assemblies from the McGuire Unit Two fuel pool. As the fuel handlers were attempting to retrieve a fuel assembly from pool location PP-34, they inadvertently picked assembly Z50 from pool location RR-34. Once retrieved, the assembly was transferred to the canister where it was lowered into the canister. As the assembly was being lowered into the canister, a camera operator noticed that the fuel ID did not match the one specified in the loading procedures. The assembly was never disengaged from the grappling tool used to move it to the canister. From a fuel specification perspective, the initial enrichment was 3.636 weight percent U-235, the final burnup was 40,254 MWD, and the discharge date was 2/22/2002. At this time, the decay heat for this assembly has been conservatively determined to be greater than the decay heat allowed per assembly. The fuel specifications not being met for this condition were minimal cooling time of five years (Table B2-4) and the allowable decay heat per assembly (Table B2-1).

"Immediate corrective actions included returning the fuel assembly to its original storage location in the fuel pool."


The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

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.

STOLEN MOISTURE DENSITY GUAGE

A Troxler moisture density gauge (Model 3430, Serial number 36310) was stolen in front of a residence in Roanoke, VA. The technician wanted to get an early start on his Monday morning tasks, went into work at 14:00 Sunday, and took the truck home. The gauge was properly attached to the truck with two chains and two locks. The gauge was stolen sometime between 14:00 Sunday (12/11/2005) and 07:15 Monday (12/12/2005). The technician called 911 and made police report #143498.

Sources: 9 milliCurie Cs-137 and 40 milliCurie Am-241/Be

* * * UPDATE AT 16:20 ON 12/13/2005 FROM BRIODY TO ABRAMOVITZ * * *

The licensee found the stolen Troxler gauge on a river bank approximately two miles from the scene of the theft. The gauge was still in the case and no apparent damage was observed.

Notified NMSS (Morell), R1DO (Dimitriadis), and TAS (via E-mail).

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.

AGREEMENT STATE - TROXLER GAUGE STOLEN AND RECOVERED IN TEXAS

The State provided the following information via facsimile:

"The gauge was unlocked in the company pickup truck. The technician was in the process of carrying the striker plate and drive rod into a below ground level test site, when he returned for the gauge it was missing. The technician reported the missing gauge to his company, Paris Texas Police Department and Paris Fire Department. The gauge was found in a parking lot the next morning by law enforcement.

"The gauge was a model # 3440 (serial # 27497) containing a Cs-137 nominal 8 mCi (source # 7501281) and an Am-241/Be source with nominal 40 mCi (serial # 47-23993).

"This event information was found as part of a review of all reports received from April 2005 till February 12, 2006 by this department."

Texas Report No. I-8286

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.