TANKER TRUCK CLEANING LEADS TO CITING OF PP&L
\nREGULATORS QUESTION NUCLEAR PLANT PRACTICES,
\nBUT DON’T PUNISH OWNER FOR MINOR VIOLATIONSThursday, June 6, 1996<\/p>\n
Page: 1A
\nBy DAWN SHURMAITIS; Times Leader Staff Writer<\/p>\n
SALEM TWP. — It’s September 1995 and a tanker truck possibly contaminated
\nwith low doses of radiation leaves the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station,
\nbound for New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Once there, the truck is sold. The new owner cleans it out at a car wash in
\nLancaster. From there, the truck travels to Canada. In February — five months after the truck left the nuclear power plant –the new owner finds a radioactive material label on the truck.<\/p>\n
Oops.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, after reviewing the incident, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
\ncited the owners of the nuclear power plant for disposing of radioactive
\nsludge as non-radioactive waste.<\/p>\n
In other words, according to NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci, potentially
\nradioactive material ended up down a car wash drain. Since the truck was
\ncleaned, there is no way to know if the river water and sludge residue
\ninside was contaminated. The power plant uses river water in the cooling
\nprocess. The sludge is a by-product. The truck was used to dispose of both.
\nBut, she said, any dose would have been low and presented no danger to the
\ngeneral public or the truck driver.<\/p>\n
The plant is co-owned by the Allentown-based Pennsylvania Power & Light
\nCo., which owns 2,500 acres in Salem Township, 18 miles from Wilkes-Barre.<\/p>\n
The NRC also cited PP&L with another violation for failing to post a sign
\nwith the words “Danger” or “Caution” in a high radiation area at the plant.<\/p>\n
In its report, the NRC lauded PP&L for taking quick action and for
\ngenerally operating safely. But, the report said, “The violations are of
\nconcern because there were multiple examples of the weaknesses identified
\nby these violations.”<\/p>\n
The violations were the lowest of four levels and do not carry fines, said
\nScrenci, who said public safety was not jeopardized.<\/p>\n
PP&L spokesman Joe Scopelliti said the company does not plan to protest the
\nviolations.<\/p>\n
“We don’t believe we’re perfect,” Scopelliti said. “We have made
\ncorrections where they need to be made. We believe we have a very good
\nhealth physics (radiation control) program, but there’s always room for
\nimprovement.”<\/p>\n
In its 39-page inspection report, issued May 23, the NRC also noted it took
\na “very critical look” at contamination control practices at the plant.<\/p>\n
Allowing 58 contaminated tools to leave the controlled area, and in some
\ncases the plant itself, was initially considered a violation but since PP&L
\ninitiated corrective actions, the NRC treated it as a “non-cited
\nviolation.”<\/p>\n
The highest level of contamination was found on a wrench, which registered
\n2,000 counts per minute, more than 20 times above the acceptable level of
\n100 counts per minute. The levels of the other items were just above the
\nacceptable level.<\/p>\n
The NRC also noted:<\/p>\n
System and practices for control of releases from the Radiation Controlled
\nArea of the plant were not “globally understood, effectively communicated
\nor consistently implemented.”<\/p>\n
The radiological tool control program and implementation had deficiencies
\nwhich resulted in the release of radioactive material from the RCA.<\/p>\n
Inadequate training, supervision and work environment contributed to
\nperformance errors resulting in the release of radioactive material from
\nthe RCA.<\/p>\n
Because PP&L conducted a “very critical” self evaluation and acted to
\nimprove its radiological control, the NRC did not issue additional
\nviolations, Screnci said.<\/p>\n
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TANKER TRUCK CLEANING LEADS TO CITING OF PP&L REGULATORS QUESTION NUCLEAR PLANT PRACTICES, BUT DON’T PUNISH OWNER FOR MINOR VIOLATIONSThursday, June 6, 1996 Page: 1A By DAWN SHURMAITIS; Times Leader Staff Writer SALEM TWP. — It’s September 1995 and a tanker truck possibly contaminated with low doses of radiation leaves the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}