The following excerpted information was received via facsimile:
Notifications: Phone call made to South West Regional Office on April 18, 2009 to notify PA DEP of the situation.
The PA DEP SWRO [Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Southwest Regional Office] was notified on Friday, April 18, 2008, by Weatherford International, who were doing reciprocity work in western PA, of a leaking well logging source containing 1.5 Ci of Cs-137. A rag used to clean of the tool was surveyed and was found to contain elevated radiation levels. The tool was removed from service and further leak tests were done, confirming the presence of contamination. It was found that the tool was leak tested in March 2008 and found to be contaminated then (at approximately 0.04 microcuries). No reason given why it was kept in service. On Saturday April 19, 2008 all likely areas of contamination were surveyed, with none showing higher than the 0.005 microcuries limit. Weatherford them contacted NSSI of Huston TX, and asked them to verify the test results and to inspect the tool itself. The source was packed and shipped to NSSI in Texas the week of April 20 for evaluation. NSSI conducted surveys and collected wipe samples of the facility before leaving and found no evidence of contamination at the facility other than the known area on the logging unit. The contamination on the logging unit was cleaned and re-wiped and showed no evidence of removable contamination after the clean-up. Urine samples for bioassays were collected from facility employees and sent to GEL Laboratories for analysis. Bioassay results for the employees were returned and showed no evidence of Cs-137 above the minimum detection limit of 10 pCi/L.
Event Report ID No: PA080008