Event Notification Report for March 30, 2007

AGREEMENT STATE REPORT - LOST TROXLER MOISTURE DENSITY GAUGE

"On March 30, 2007, in Dallas, TX, during a torrential rainstorm, the driver of a truck carrying radioactive material slammed into the guardrail of a bridge. The driver, who is the Radiation Safety Office for the company, was thrown from the truck and hospitalized. The moisture density gauge (Troxler Model 3450, S/N 544) transport case was thrown from the truck and fell [approximately] 40 feet to a service road where the transport case broke apart and the gauge ended up on the side of the road. The next morning the Dallas Fire and Rescue Department (DFD) was alerted that a nuclear gauge had been transported in the truck and was unaccounted for. Once the gauge was sighted and radiation symbols identified, DFD closed the service road and called in an environmental firm for assistance. Four hours later the Agency was notified by DFD via the Agency's answering service. DFD personnel suited up and retrieved the gauge. The gauge was found to be undamaged except for a broken display. The two sources in the gauge (40mCi, AmBe-241, S/N47-28488 and 8mCi, Cs-137, S/N750-7116) were still retracted into the body of the device and appeared undamaged. The instrument was removed to a secure location and the licensee is making arrangements for the manufacturer to retrieve and repair the unit. The investigation is on-going."

TX Incident No.: I-8400

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.

CRITICALITY WARNING SYSTEM ALARM ACTUATION DUE TO POWER FLUCTUATION

"At approximately 0740 on 3/30/2007, a segment of the inside Criticality Warning System (CWS) covering the Fuel Manufacturing Operation (FMO) failed due to an apparent voltage fluctuation in the power supply to the system. The fluctuation resulted in activation of the CWS evacuation alarm.

"All personnel promptly evacuated the facility and the emergency organization assembled in accordance with normal procedures. A total of 5 out of 6 FMO CWS Data Acquisition Modules (DAMS) were affected by apparent power supply fluctuation. Two additional DAMS, which are independent, continued to provide coverage of the Dry Conversion Process (DCP) process areas.

"The Emergency Director determined that the processes should stay shut down and all personnel not engaged in troubleshooting or recovery actions remain out of the area while investigations and additional testing was conducted. Follow-up tests replaced select hardware, and installed additional power supply monitoring equipment to aid diagnostics. All DAMS have been successfully reset and the inside FMO CWS system returned to normal operation.

"Current plans are to resume normal operations beginning with the 1500 (evening) shift.

"The event is being reported within 24-hours pursuant to 10CFR70.50(b)(2) as a safety equipment failure."

The licensee will also be providing a courtesy notification to the North Carolina Department of Radiological Protection and the New Hanover County Emergency Management organization.

SAFETY EQUIPMENT FAILURE - PROCESS GAS LEAK DETECTION SYSTEM

"At 1030, on 3-30-07 the Plant Shift Superintendent was notified of the failure of the C-333A Process Gas Leak Detection (PGLD) detector head YE-613-21. Detector head YE-613-21 is located in the piping trench between the autoclaves. The trench detector heads are scheduled to be replaced at a six month interval. Operators were performing an "as-found" test on the head prior to scheduled replacement. The detector head did not alarm as required when smoke was applied during the test. The Process Gas Leak Detection system is required to be operable according to TSR 2.2.4.1.

"This event is reportable as a 24 hour event in accordance with 10CFR 76.120(c)(2)(l). This is an event in which equipment is disabled or fails to function as designed when: a.) the equipment is required by a TSR to prevent releases, prevent exposures to radiation and radioactive materials exceeding specified limits, mitigate the consequences of an accident, or restore this facility to a pre-established safe condition after an accident; b.) the equipment is required by a TSR to be available and operable and either should have been operating or should have operated on demand, and c.) no redundant equipment is available and operable to perform the required safety function."

The YE-613-21 detector head was replaced approximately 6 months ago and was last known to be functional approximately one month ago after some wiring tests were conducted in the area of the detector head. The permittee is conducting failure cause analysis to determine failure mode and possibly identify when failure occurred.

The NRC Senior Resident Inspector has been notified of this event.

PGDP Problem Report No. ATRC-07-0819; PGDP Event Report No. PAD-2007-02