Event Notification Report for November 09, 2022

AGREEMENT STATE REPORT - FOUND MOISTURE DENSITY GAUGE

The following information was received via email from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (the Department):

"During the afternoon of 10/31/22, an InstroTek model 3500 portable gauge was found by a member of the public and turned into Radiation Pros, LLC (specific license CO 1183-01). The isotopes are presumed to be 11 mCi cesium-137 and 44 mCi americium-241:beryllium, but the Department is awaiting confirmation. Radiation Pros, LLC contacted the Department to let us know that they have the InstroTek model 3500 on site and that they contacted InstroTek with the serial number of the portable gauge to find out who owned the gauge. InstroTek let Radiation Pros know that the gauge belongs to Geostruct Engineers, Inc. dba RMG-Rocky Mountain Group, radioactive material license number CO 758-01. Radiation Pros contacted Geostruct Engineers and let them know that they have the portable gauge. Geostruct Engineers picked up the InstroTek portable gauge and transported it back to the licensed location. This event appears to be unrelated to Colorado event CO210032 [EN 55510]."

Colorado Event Report ID No.: CO 220036

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. For additional information go to http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf

UNANALYZED CONDITION - NUCLEAR MATERIAL RECEIVED IN EXCESS OF LICENSE LIMITS

The following is a synopsis of information provided by the licensee via email:

Uranium Recovery and Recycle Services (URRS) personnel were offloading ash on 11/1/22 that they had received in 2003 from the decommissioned Hematite site at Dock 3. The operators opened the Type A drum and from an inner canister pulled out the bag of Hematite ash. The bag had a tag indicating enrichment levels in excess of their license limits. Upon discovery, the operators contacted criticality safety engineering and the safeguards coordinator. The operators were instructed to replace the bag in the canister and drum and to segregate the drums that contained material potentially greater than license limits in accordance with generally accepted guidance for criticality safety. An extent of condition was performed using materials control and accounting records of the received material. It was discovered that several drums potentially contain material in excess of license enrichment limits. The plant is in a safe condition and the steps taken in response to this event are considered to be conservative.

This report is being made per 10 CFR 70 Appendix A (b)(1). This event resulted in the facility being in a state that was not analyzed in their Integrated Safety Analysis Report and resulted in a failure to meet the performance requirements of 10 CFR 70.61, specifically there were no controls in place due to it being an unanalyzed condition. Westinghouse is unable to open, sample, and test the ash to determine enrichment until the proposed process has been analyzed with documented controls in place.

This issue has been entered into the licensee's corrective action program as IR-2022-9728.

AGREEMENT STATE REPORT - LEAKING CS-131 BRACHYTHERAPY SOURCE

The following information was received via email from the Washington Office of Radiation Protection:

"On 11/2/2022, a licensee, IsoRay Medical - License Number: WN-L0213-1 reported a Cs-131 Brachytherapy source, model CS-1, leaking at customer's facility. A customer detected contamination on equipment used during a procedure with Cs-131 seeds. The customer was not initially able to identify the isotope of the contamination using their equipment, however they were able to perform a half-life estimation using dose measurements on a collimated container loaded with all the contaminated items from the procedure. The decay rate was roughly in line with Cs-131. The customer indicated that as part of their own procedures, the order, which arrived as a non-sterile mick pig, was opened and surveyed. No contamination was found at that time. A thorough investigation is ongoing."

Washington Incident Number: WA-22-021