Event Notification Report for August 14, 2006

AGREEMENT STATE - STUCK SOURCE

The State provided the following information via email:

"Problems were encountered during a Varian HDR source exchange during the evening of 8/14/06. While attempting to replace the source on a Varian Medical System's VariSource HDR unit, the new active source (Ir-192, 9 curies) got stuck in a transfer tube. Following placement of shielding, the source was freed and placed in the transport pig by noon on 8/15/06. A new source was delivered, and was successfully installed during the evening of 8/16/06."

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS AGREEMENT STATE REPORT - LOST/MISSING RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL

The State provided the following information via facsimile:


"As a result of re-labeling effort by Thermo Niton Analyzers LLC (Thermo Niton) to add Am-241 check source information to the device label, the Radiation Safety Officer of Thermo Niton discovered that the device is lost or missing and provided the following information:

"With regard to Unit 5213 (Model XLi 848, serial number 5213), we [Thermo Niton] have visited Morris Iron and Steel in person to re-label Unit 5213 and they did not have it in their inventory of devices. An exhaustive review of our [Thermo Niton] records indicate that the last time we [Thermo Niton] were in possession of this device was when we [Thermo Niton] sent it to Morris Iron and Steel at 7345 Milnor Street, Philadelphia, PA 19136 under General License on 9/17/04. The device had 40 mCi (millicuries) Cd-109 source (reference date 4/23/02), a 20 mCi Fe-55 source (reference date 4/20/02), and a 1 microCurie Am-241 Check Shutter source. Morris claims to have sent it back to us but has not been able to produce a tracking number or any other evidence of their shipment. We [Thermo Niton] have contacted Federal Express who is our primary carrier and they have reportedly not maintained records of shipments going back that far. We [Thermo Niton] have also contacted Valley Safety Services who performs leak tests for us and many of our customers and they have not leak tested this device for anyone since prior to 9/14/04. We [Thermo Niton] have put a flag in our database system that will automatically flag us if the device is received here at any time in the future.

"As of 8/22/06, the approximate calculated activities of the sources are 3.8 milliCuries for the Cd-109 source; 6.6 millicuries for the Fe-55 source and 1 microCurie for the Am-241 check source."


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.

This source is not amongst those sources or devices identified by the IAEA Code of Conduct for the Safety & Security of Radioactive Sources to be of concern from a radiological standpoint. Therefore is it being categorized as a less than Category 3 source

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THIS IS NOT A NEW REPORT.

This event report was originally withheld from public release under the NRC's policy for protecting sensitive unclassified information. The NRC has reevaluated this policy and is now making this event report available to the public with suitable redactions.
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TECHNETIUM-99 CONTAMINATION DISCOVERED ONSITE

"In a letter dated August 14, 2006, BWX Technologies, Inc. (BWXT) made a notification to the NRC Region Il, as required by license SNM-42, Section 9.4.2, that low levels of Tc-99 contamination had been discovered in two shallow groundwater-monitoring wells (FEP-1 and FEP-2) adjacent to the Final Effluent Ponds. The levels detected exceeded the license action level for beta activity."

The Tc-99 levels identified were 1,408 and 6,206 picocuries/liter for the wells FEP-1 and FEP-2 respectively. These exceeded the NRC licensed action level for beta activity. Additionally, the gross beta levels are above the gross beta screening level for groundwater and surface water. BWXT indicated that as a result of their initial investigation the contamination is contained on the BWXT site and there is no potential for contamination to migrate to offsite groundwater or to affect drinking water at the site.

"This concurrent report is being made as the result of an August 25, 2006 notification letter that is being submitted to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

"BWXT has initiated an investigation and will provide the results to the Senior NRC Resident Inspector when complete. The Senior NRC Resident Inspector has been briefed of the event and the current status of the investigation."

* * * UPDATE 05/11/08 BY P. SNYDER * * *

THIS IS NOT A NEW REPORT.

This event report was originally withheld from public release under the NRC's policy for protecting sensitive unclassified information. The NRC has reevaluated this policy and is now making this event report available to the public with suitable redactions.