Brian Bradley
RW Monitor
10/16/2015
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that a “more than minor” violation of NRC requirements occurred during an Aug. 1 uranium hexafluoride (UF6) release at Honeywell’s Metropolis Works uranium conversion plant related to a valve installed during maintenance, according to a recently completed inspection report of the incident. The NRC ranks violations of a “more than minor concern” on a “Severity Level” scale, ranging from Severity Level IV for issues of most benign concern to Severity Level I for the most significant concerns, according to the commission’s website. NRC ranked the Metropolis Works incident a Severity Level IV event, because Honeywell’s incident commander (IC) improperly implemented a “shelter-in-place” protective action recommendation for members of the public within a 1.3-mile radius of the plant, according to the Oct. 8 report.
NRC conducted its inspection of the Illinois plant from Aug. 2-14. The report indicated Honeywell apparently did not conduct its Metropolis Works operations in accordance with the statements, representations, and/or conditions of the NRC’s emergency response plan.
“Contrary to [NRC requirements], on August 1, 2015, upon proper recognition and declaration of an Alert condition, the IC failed to ensure that correct immediate actions were initiated in that a shelter-in-place Protective Action Recommendation was issued, although no response by an offsite organization was required to protect the public,” the report states. According to NRC, “Protective Action Recommendations” refer to recommendations that nuclear plant personnel make to state and local government agencies on how to protect the population after evaluating plant conditions. The NRC report acknowledged that immediate actions taken by Honeywell’s emergency responders were “timely and effective” to “minimize and mitigate” the leak.
The NRC in August said the incident caused no injuries and that no material escaped the uranium conversion facility. The leak was cleaned by a water mitigation system — basically powerful water cannons. The leak was the second involving UF6 at the facility in 10 months, after an equipment failure near the end of the production process caused the substance to leak on Oct. 26.
