Workers at Westinghouse Electric’s Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF) in South Carolina violated federal safety codes in September when they shipped contaminated barrels of uranium hexafluoride to Washington state, adding to the growing list of safety issues that have plagued the plant in recent years.
The incident resulted in a Level IV violation from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), reflecting a minor error that caused no injuries or contamination to workers. The industry regulator did not fine or otherwise penalize the company.
Still, the violation will hold some indirect weight in the NRC’s decision regarding Westinghouse’s pending license renewal for its facility, an agency spokesperson said via email.
During an NRC inspection of the plant from Sept. 23-26, officials confirmed that two of the 30 barrels that had been shipped to Washington had trace amounts of uranium on the valve covers that keep the containers closed. Details of the inspection were outlined in a Nov. 22 inspection report.
The containers left the Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility on Sept. 10 and arrived two days later at a Framatome facility in Richland, Wa. Framatome, a France-based nuclear equipment and fuel supplier, would use the Westinghouse-produced uranium hexafluoride contained in the barrels for production of fuel for nuclear reactors.
Framatome employees noticed the cylinders were compromised and immediately decontaminated them before notifying the NRC. Subsequently, Westinghouse conducted an apparent cause analysis to determine how the cylinders left the South Carolina plant without being vetted for contamination. The company then submitted its findings to the NRC on Oct. 10.
“The inspectors reviewed the licensee’s apparent cause analysis and determined that the findings identified by the licensee were contributing factors of the licensee’s failure to perform adequate surveys on outgoing shipments of two 30B cylinders containing licensed material,” the NRC stated in the Nov. 22 inspection report.
