International Isotopes’ failure to adequately address the 2018 breach of a radioactive source at its Idaho headquarters contributed to a similar, larger event months later in Seattle, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Following a routine inspection earlier this year, the agency on Monday cited the Idaho Falls-based nuclear medicine company with apparent violations of federal regulations and its NRC license in connection with the May 2019 release of cesium-137 at a research facility for the University of Washington’s Harborview Medical Center.
In the two years leading up to the incident, International Isotopes failed to meet the regulatory requirement to “assure completion” of safety reviews for proposed uses of byproduct material, the NRC said. The company also failed to secure NRC approval for a procedure used in removal of the radioactive sealed source in Seattle, which was not authorized under its license, the regulator said in an inspection report.
The NRC is considering escalated enforcement for the identified breaches, Mary Muessle, director of the NRC Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, wrote in a June 22 letter to International Isotopes President and CEO Steve Laflin. She did not say what measures the agency might take if the violations are confirmed.
Ahead of that point, International Isotopes can within 10 days request a pre-decisional enforcement conference with NRC officials or mediation in an effort to resolve the dispute.
International Isotopes as of this year has exited the radiological source recovery business under which it breached a sealed source on May 2, 2019, during a job for the private firm that manages the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The incident spread cesium-137 through the building.
“The NRC inspectors determined that one root cause of the Seattle contamination event was the licensee’s failure to implement corrective actions identified through the corrective action program for a contamination event that occurred at its facility five months prior to the Seattle contamination event,” the inspection report says.
