ML19031B521

04/27/1978 Letter Reportable Occurrence on Excessive Concentration of Iodine in Milk Sample Collected at Environmental Sampling Location

ML19031B521
Person / Time
Site:	Salem
Issue date:	04/27/1978
From:	Librizzi F Public Service Electric & Gas Co
To:	Grier B NRC/IE, NRC Region 1
References
LER 1978-024-04T
Download: ML19031B521 (3)

Text

Public Service Electric and Gas Company 80 Park Place Newark, N.J. 07101 Phone 201 /622-7000 April 27, 1978 CJ

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Director of USNRC ;t:~z:

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631 Park Avenue cs* 5 rn 0 z King of Prussia, Pennsylvania 19406. (/)

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Dear Mr. Grier:

LICENSE NO. DPR-70 DOCKET NO. 50-272 REPORTABLE OCCURRENCE 78-24/04T Pursuant to the requirement~ of Salem.Generating Station Unit No. 1 Environmental Technical Specifications, Section 5.6.2.2,

• we are submitting Licensee Event Report for Reportable Occurrence 78-24/04T. This report.is required within ten (10) days of the occurrence.

Sincerely yours,

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+ . { *' u~vvy~u F. P. Librizzi General Manager -

Electric Production CC: Director, Office of Inspection and Enforcement (40 copies) birector, Office of Management Information and Program Control

( 3 copies)

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The Energy People 95*2001 300M 10-74

Report *Number: .

e78-24/041' Report Date: 4/27/78 Occurrence Date: 4/20/78 Facility: Salem Generating Station Public Service Electric & Gas Company Hancocks Bridge, New Jersey 08038 IDENTIFICATION OF OCCURRENCE:

A milk sample collected at environmental sampling location 5F2, during the week of April 10, 1978, had an activity concentration of Iodine 131 which exceeded ten (10) times the control station activity concentra-tion. This event is reportable within ten days of confirmation in accord*ance with the Salem Environmental Technical Specification, Section 5~6.2.2.1.

CONDITIONS. PRIOR TO OCCURRENCE:

The Salem Generating Station has not operated since March 16, 1978, due to turbine repairs. A review of the station release records indicate that no gaseous Iodine 131 was released into the environ-ment from January thru March 1978. The People's Republic of China detonated a 20 kiloton nuclear device in the atmosphere at their LOB Nor test site . in March. Rain water samples taken at. location

• .*.*. . 3H3; which is more than one* hundred' miles away from the Salem site I indicated a greater than ten fold increase in gross beta radiation levels in rain water during the month of March as compared to.

• January val,ues.

DESCRIPTION OF OCCURRENCE:

On April 17, 1978, Public Service Electric and Gas Company.was noti-fied by their.contractor laporatory that results of milk samples analyses for the.environmental sampling location 5F2; collected on April 10 I 1978 and counted on April 1,6' 1978 I indicated an I-131 activity of 4.1 pCi/l. This activity was found to be more than 10 times the control station value of 0.24 pCi/l and is therefore, required to be.reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ten days after the results are reconfirmed. The sample was recounted and the results were reconfirmed on April 20, 1978. A similar incident occurredon April 14, 1978 and was previously reported to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission as reportable occurrence number 78-23/04T. .

DESIGNATION OF APPARENT CAUSE OF OCCURRENCE:

Due to the fact that the Salem Generating Station has not been oper-ating since March 16, 197S, and due to the known radioactive fallout from the* Chinese Weapon Test of* March 1978 and its subsequent appear-ance in environmental samples in the Eastern United States, we must conclude that the increase iodine milk concentration activities cannot be attributed to the operation of the Salem Generating Station.

I.ER 78-24/04T ANALYSIS OF OCCURRENCE:

N/A CORRECTIVE ACTION:

N/A FAILURE DATA:

N/A Prepa~ed by Norris c. Allman

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SORC Meeting No. 25-78 .

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