The following information was received via e-mail:
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) was notified of this event on Monday, April 1, 2019. This event occurred in a manufacturing fabrication shop in a fixed shooting bay.
On Tuesday, March 12, 2019, the Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) and a radiography trainee were shooting welds at the Steel Forgigs, Inc. (SF) site. The RSO stated the QC/QA [Quality Control/Quality Assurance] safety checks had been performed before the 'radiography work' began. During radiography work of shooting welds and exchanging out pipe to be x-rayed, the trainee proceeded to change out the film on the pipe while the RSO went to retrieve a new piece of pipe. The safety alarm/lights were not flashing and the trainee assumed the source had been retracted into the shielded position. However, the trainee's survey meter saturated and his pocket dosimeter went off scale. The lights and alarm were still not responding. The RSO stated 'I knew the trainee did not exceed the 5 REM exposure limit due to my work experience.'
The survey meter was functioning properly when removed from the 'high radiation' field and his pocket dosimeter appeared to function properly when re-zeroed after the off-scale reading. The trainee's personnel monitor was sent to be processed for his personal exposure. The exposure results were 2.488 REM exposure.
The equipment involved in the incident was a QSA 880 Delta, s/n D5843, exposure device with a QSA source model A424-9, Ir-192 source, s/n 71973G with an activity of 19 Ci.
The internal investigation documented there was no excessive exposure to the trainee. However, the late reporting of the incident, not reporting of the incident by regulatory requirement and no commitment to corrective actions to prevent these events from reoccurring in the future are still outstanding.
LDEQ is seeking escalated enforcement actions pertaining to this licensee and NMED incident.
Louisiana Event Report ID No.: LA-190005