The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a May 2 conference with Energy Northwest to give the utility an opportunity to explain an incident in which it allegedly shipped low-level radioactive waste from the Columbia Generating Station in Washington state to a nearby disposal facility, where it was rejected for under-reported radiation levels.
The NRC is considering penalizing the company for a violation that has been preliminarily characterized as “white,” which represents a low-to-moderate safety issue.
In November 2016, workers at the nuclear plant near the city of Richland sent a single package of radioactive filters and other “low specific activity” material to a US Ecology disposal facility 10 miles away. The recipient facility found that the radiation levels for the package were more than seven times higher than documented in the shipping manifest. The material was subsequently returned to the plant for continued storage, and the Washington state Department of Health then suspended Energy Northwest’s disposal permit privileges for shipments to US Ecology until the matter was resolved. The Tri-City Herald reported Thursday that the state agency has reinstated the company’s disposal privileges.
Energy Northwest could not be reached for comment, but company spokesman Michael Paoli has said in the past the shipment was made inside a 45,000-pound, heavily shielded cask. The radioactive filters were used for vacuuming and cleaning the plant’s spent fuel pool, an activity completed on a six-year cycle.
According to the NRC, the shipment to the US Ecology disposal facility had an external radiation level of 2.1 rem per hour at a distance of 3 meters from the unshielded material, which exceeds the low specific activity limit of 1 rem per hour at 3 meters.
“The conference is an opportunity for you and your staff to provide your perspective on this matter including your views and facts that the NRC should consider in determining the final significance of the apparent violation, and information related to the completed and or planned corrective actions,” the NRC wrote in a notice issued Monday.
While the regulator has not issued a notice of violation as it prepares its final determination in the case, additional evaluation could lead to a revised characterization of the seeming license breach, NRC Reactor Safety Division Director Anton Vegel wrote in the letter to Energy Northwest CEO Mark Reddemann.
The violation was identified during a December 2016 special inspection at the plant, and the regulator discussed its findings with the company during a March 17 inspection exit meeting. During the inspection, the regulator also identified seven violations of very low safety significance, meaning the regulator will not issue any citations for those infractions. The NRC did not elaborate on the seven violations. The regulatory conference has been scheduled for 1 p.m. local time on May 2 at the NRC’s regional office in Arlington, Texas.
