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Ohio Workers Carried Radioactive Particles to South Carolina

 

It has been reported that workers from the Davis-Besse Nuclear power plant in Ohio carried radioactive particles on their clothing to a home, hotel room and nuclear plants in other states, including South Carolina, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Three workers recently left the northwest Ohio plant and traveled to Duke Energy Corp.'s Oconee Nuclear Station in Seneca, S.C., where radioactive particles were discovered on their clothing, during a routine inspection, said Kenneth Riemer an NRC investigator.

The particles, which are too small to see, posed no health risks to the workers or public, NRC spokesperson Victor Dricks said.

However, "you don't typically see something get out of a site and be picked up like that," said Riemer.

Particles were found on clothing left at a South Carolina hotel and a worker's home in Virginia, he said. A particle was found on the shoe of a fourth worker who left Davis-Besse and traveled to TXU Corp.'s Comanche Peak power plant near Fort Worth, Texas.

Federal investigators are planning to review safety procedures at the First Energy Corp. plant.

Dricks said, "The licensee is supposed to maintain control over radioactive material, and there are indications that they may have been remiss, and that's what we are looking into,"

Richard Wilkins a spokesman First Energy said that plant inspectors have tried to determine whether the microscopic particles passed by its monitors.

"We're not sure it did," Wilkins said. "We don't have any indication that it is necessarily from our plant."

Officials from Davis-Besse were notified March 22 that four workers had carried 13 particles to three states outside Ohio. The plant notified the NRC on Friday.

Workers typically wear protective clothing while at the nuclear plants, then remove their suits in a safe area where they are screened to make sure radioactive particles do not escape the plants.

Finding microscopic particles is not unheard of particularly during refueling, Wilkins said. He said a couple of workers came to Davis-Besse in February and particles were found on their clothing.

Inspectors from the plant were sent to the worker's homes and found that there was no danger. A report was then forwarded to the NRC, Wilkins said.

Federal inspectors planned to review the screening process at Davis-Besse and the plant's response to the discovery of radioactive particles being found outside the plant, Riemer said.

In other news, last month inspectors found that longtime leaks had allowed boric acid to eat a 7-inch wide hole almost through the 6-inch thick steel cap that covers the Davis-Besse plant's reactor vessel.

"They should have been on the highest alert for safety measures.It certainly says to me that this is a company that is not paying enough attention to the very grave responsibility they have for safety." said Christine Patronik Holder of Safe Energy Communication Council, a Washington based watchdog group on nuclear issues.