ENS 53667
ENS Event | |
|---|---|
05:00 Oct 14, 2018 | |
| Title | Agreement State Report - Stuck Irradiator Source Rack |
| Event Description | The following was received from the State of Nebraska via email:
This morning at approximately 1030 [CDT], the State of Nebraska was contacted by the RSO of Becton, Dickinson and Company located in Holdrege, NE (NE license # 37-03-01) concerning a 24 hour2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> reportable event. I believe the reporting requirement could be 10 CFR 36.83(a)(1), source stuck in the unshielded position or 10 CFR 36.83(a)(4), failure of the cable or drive mechanism used to move the source rack. Event: Approximately 1930 [CDT] on the night of October 14, 2018, there was an alarm of the source positioning indicators alerting the operators of a moving source. When the source rack failed to reach the rack down position in the allotted time period, a fault was recorded at the control panel. It appeared that the rack was stuck in the up position. The RSO called in at approximately 1940 [CDT] to help investigate the situation. Soon after arriving at the facility, [the RSO] placed a call into MDS Nordion for help with the situation. During the 2 hour2.314815e-5 days <br />5.555556e-4 hours <br />3.306878e-6 weeks <br />7.61e-7 months <br /> time period for MDS Nordion to call back, [the RSO] successfully returned source rack #2 to the shielded position and tried to lower the source rack #1 to its shielded position but was unable to lower source rack #1. They also did some preliminary investigations and assumed that one of the guide cables for source rack #1 had busted. Once MDS Nordion returned their call, it was verified that the guide cable for source rack #1 had busted. MDS Nordion had the operators raise source rack #2 and with source rack #2 in its up position, lower source rack #1. After a couple attempts, they were successful in lowering the source rack #1 to its shielded position. Once source rack #1 was in its shielded position, the operators lowered the source rack #2 to its shielded position. Both were verified by the source down positioning switch. Note: After about 3.5 hours5.787037e-5 days <br />0.00139 hours <br />8.267196e-6 weeks <br />1.9025e-6 months <br /> of the sources being stuck in the up position, the rack deluge system (rack sprinkler system) was deployed as a precautionary step to cool the sources and the product close to the sources. The overall time the sources were in the up position was approximately 5 hours5.787037e-5 days <br />0.00139 hours <br />8.267196e-6 weeks <br />1.9025e-6 months <br />. This was Nordion Model JS-8900 commercial irradiator. It was reported that nobody entered the vault while the sources were in the up position and that there is no reason to believe that any addition exposure to the workers was involved in this incident. |
| Where | |
|---|---|
| Becton Dickinson & Co. Holdrege, Nebraska (NRC Region 4) | |
| License number: | NE-37-03-01 |
| Organization: | Ne Div Of Radioactive Materials |
| Reporting | |
| Agreement State | |
| Time - Person (Reporting Time:+32.75 h1.365 days <br />0.195 weeks <br />0.0449 months <br />) | |
| Opened: | Bryan Miller 13:45 Oct 15, 2018 |
| NRC Officer: | Dong Park |
| Last Updated: | Oct 15, 2018 |
| 53667 - NRC Website | |
Becton Dickinson & Co. with Agreement State | |
WEEKMONTHYEARENS 536712018-10-16T05:00:00016 October 2018 05:00:00
[Table view]Agreement State Agreement State Report - Equipment Failure ENS 536672018-10-14T05:00:00014 October 2018 05:00:00 Agreement State Agreement State Report - Stuck Irradiator Source Rack 2018-10-16T05:00:00 | |