The following was received from the Commonwealth of
Kentucky via email:
KY RHB [Kentucky Radiation Health Branch] was notified by telephone on 7/11/14 by Todd Ramkey, Corporate RSO at Schnabel Engineering Inc. in Glenn Allen, VA, of the fact that a CPN model MC-1 portable moisture/density gauge had been run over and crushed at a coal slurry impoundment belonging to Long Fork Coal Company in Hatfield, KY. The CPN gauge contained 10 mCi of Cs-137 and 50 mCi of Am-241/Be.
Initial surveys performed by the licensee with a RadAlert GM survey instrument indicated the sources were not breached and that there was no contamination on the ground where the incident occurred or on the bulldozer involved. The shattered pieces of the device, including the two sources, were packaged on-site by the licensee into a 55 gallon drum in accordance with guidance provided by the radiation safety staff at Instro-Tek in Raleigh, NC, labeled appropriately and shipped back to the offices of Geo/Environmental Associates, Inc. in Knoxville, TN in a company owned vehicle. The shipment was met by a representative of the TN Division of Radiological Health where follow-on surveys and contamination smears were taken. They also instructed the licensee to send leak test wipes to Instro-Tek for expedited analysis and instructed the licensee to send personal monitoring for those involved in for analysis.
A telephone call to
RHB from the
CRSO at Schnabel on 7/14/14 at approximately 1500 said indicated leak test results from Instro-Tek were less than the 185 Bq limit and that no breach of the sources had occurred.
RHB gave the
CRSO permission to release the control of the site and the equipment at Long Fork Coal based on these negative leak test results. The
CRSO at Schnabel indicated that hardcopies of the leak test results would be provided to both
RHB and TN Div. Rad Health as well as the results of personal monitoring for those involved in the incident including transportation of the
gauge back to Knoxville. Reporting criteria defined in 902
KAR 100:040, Section 15(2)(b) [10 CFR 30.50(b)(2)].