Paraphrased by
Steve Waldrop
January 27, 2003

A worker for the North Anna Power Station in Virginia became ill and then contaminated with radioactive material was working on equipment near the shut-down Unit 2 nuclear reactor. North Anna's Unit 2 has been shut down since September for refueling, and for replacement of the unit's reactor head. The reactor heads are being replaced on the North Anna and Surry reactors as a preventive measure after corrosion was found on the 6-inch-thick steel containers.

Richard Zuercher, spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power said that this was the first time that a contaminated worker was sent outside the plant for medical treatment. The incident was reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The unidentified man, was replacing equipment near a fuel-transfer unit beside the reactor when he became overheated and asked for assistance, Zuercher said. The man was wearing two layers of protective clothes and a respirator in an area of the plant that can get very warm.

"He had some distress and it was heat-related," Zuercher said. As the worker left the building, a small amount of radiation was detected on his face and his clothes.

Another worker helped him remove his respirator, and as a result, "He got contamination on his glove and he got a little on his face," Zuercher said, emphasizing that the man's heat distress had nothing to do with the contamination, which resulted from brushing up against radioactive surfaces.

The man was partially decontaminated at the plant on Lake Anna. The job was completed in an ambulance while he was en route to the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals.

"You use a mild soap and warm water" to scrub off radioactive material, Zuercher said. The contaminated items were taken back to the plant for disposal.

The amount of radiation the worker was exposed to was "barely detectable," Zuercher said. "We're talking about a very tiny amount here, but you have to take care of it and remove it."

Places at the plant where workers can be exposed to radiation are designated "contamination areas," and the reactor building is one such spot. "There are other areas in the plant where radiation levels are much higher and where we have other precautions," Zuercher said.

Zuercher said that it is not unusual for workers in protective clothing to pick up traces of radioactive material from contaminated surfaces. That's why they are screened going in and leaving any such areas to see if they have been exposed.

Workers are not supposed to receive more than 5 rems (radiation equivalent man) of radiation exposure a year. The amount the worker received is a fraction of that.

North Anna's reactor-head replacement should be completed by the end of the month and Unit 2 will go back online, Zuercher said.

North Anna, Dominion 's second nuclear station, generates 1,786 megawatts from its two units. Unit 1 began commercial operation on June, 1978 and Unit 2 followed in December, 1980.

The power station is located in the thickly wooded hills of central Virginia sixty miles northwest of Richmond. The facility was named after the North Anna River, the river dammed to form the huge lake that supplies cooling water for the station.