ML20054M446

Responds to NRC Re Violations Noted in IE Insp Rept.Corrective Actions:Procedures for Calibr Portable Radiation Safety Instruments Rewritten & Will Be Tested

ML20054M446
Person / Time
Site:	05000142
Issue date:	06/24/1982
From:	Wegst W CALIFORNIA, UNIV. OF, LOS ANGELES, CA
To:	Wenslawski F NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION V)
Shared Package
ML20054M437	List: ML20054M436 ML20054M446
References
NUDOCS 8207130244
Download: ML20054M446 (2)

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'b I Y,Q': COMMUNITY SAFETY DEPARTMENT OFFICE OF RESEARCH ar OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY IDS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90094 June 24, 1982 F. A. Wenslawski Chief, Reactor Radiation Protection Section USNRC Region V 1450 Maria Lane, Suite 260 Walnut Creek, California 94596 Docket No. 50-142

Dear Mr. Wenslawski:

Re: NRC Inspection of UCLA Research Reactor - Notice of Violation The following actions have been taken to correct the two violations cited in your letter of June 9,1982.

A. A draft procedure for calibration of portable radiation safety instruments has been written and will be tested within the next month. If any revisions are found to be necessary the draft will be rewritten accordingly, at which time it will be incorporated into written procedures for the NEL. The NEL Director and the Radiation Use Committee will be given an opportunity to review this procedure even though it is actually a campus wide procedure which will be used at the NEL.

The Director of the NEL has not reviewed the Area Radiation Monitor calibration procedure, because the matter was passed directly to the Radiation Use Committee (see B below).

B. The Radiation Use Comittee met on June 15, 1982 and reviewed the calibration procedure for the Area Radiation Monitors. The Committee suggested a number of changes and additions to the procedure, which is currently being re-written. When the revised procedure is completed, it will be tested in July and if found to be satisfactory it will again be presented to both the Director of NEL and the Radiation Use Committee for their respective review and approval.

We wish to note that the Technical Specifications for the UCLA Reactor do not explicitly refer to calibration procedures and previous inspection reports have not referred to the need for such written procedures (nor have previous inspectors informally implied such a requirement). We do not dispute the need for written calibration procedures and in fact our 1981 in-depth review 8207130244 820707 PDR ADOCK 05000 0

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e pagetwo' made that point. As a result, we initiated a procedure-writing activity some twelve months ago, that is not yet finished. However, as we discussed with the inspectors during the exit interview, we do not agree that we are in technical violation of our license.

We also wish to connent briefly on the observations made by Messrs.

Cillis and Garcia relative to the performance of the reactor health physicist.

Due to the unexpected resignation of the previous health physicist in 1981, the encumbent was reassigned to this position from another assignment on the campus. He has now been in this job slightly more than one year. The Director of the Office of Research and Occupational Safety and the Campus Radiation Safety Officer both recognized some 6-8 months ago that the performance of this individual was less than adequate. As a result, various steps had been initiated prior to the inspection to begin to upgrade the performance of this individual. On the job training was started, the reactor health physicist was assigned to take the reactor operator training course (he recently achieved a 'B' on the final exam), and certain disciplinary action was taken against the individual. Management intends to continue to work very closely with the reactor health physicist and to take whatever steps are necessary to achieve satisfactory health physics coverage at the reactor.

Very Truly Yours, b /0 Walter F. Wegst Director, Research &

Occupational Safety WFW/gr

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