ML20197F801
| ML20197F801 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 12/19/1997 |
| From: | Miller H NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I) |
| To: | Knabe T STROH BREWERY CO. |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20197F806 | List: |
| References | |
| REF-QA-99990001-971219 99990001-97-21, EA-97-486, NUDOCS 9712300297 | |
| Download: ML20197F801 (5) | |
Text
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t KINO oF PRUSSIA. PENNSYLVANIA 194041416 December 19,1997 EA 97-406 Mr. Timothy P. Knabe, Plant Manager The Stroh Brewery Company Post Office Box 25013 Lehigh, Pennsylvania 18002 5013 SUlsJECT:
NOTICE OF VIOLATION AND PROPOSED IMPOSITl0N OF civil PENALTY
$4,400 (NRC Inspection Report No. 99990001/97-021)
Dear Mr. Knabe:
This refers to the NRC inspection conducted on October 0 and 9,1997 at your facility in Fogelsville, Pennsylvania, to review the circumstances surrounding the unauthorized disposal of a gauge containing NRClicensed materialthat you possessed pursuant to a generallicense issued by the NRC, Apparently, as part of a plant cleanup in July 1997, the gauge was inadvertently placed in a scrap dumpster at the facility and then picked up by a company (Todd Heller,Inc.) not authorized to possess the gauge. The materialwas then transferred by Todd Heller, Inc. to the Royal Green Metal Recyclers in Temple, Pennsylvania, shredded with non ferrous automotive parts, and shipped to a Michigan recycler where it caused a radiation monitor to alarm, after which the dumpster was sent back to the Royal Green f acility in Pennsylvania. A second gauge of the same type is currently unaccounted for and you have not dete, mined whether that gauge was also part of the shipment to Royal Green that was shredded, or was part of one of eight shipments to another recycle f acility (Ray Craft & Sons) in New Jersey between April 1,1997, and September 22,1997, or is elsewhere.
After the NRC received notification from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
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Protection on September 2,1997, concerning this occurrence, NRC inspectors were
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dispatched to the Royal Green f acility on September 3,1997, to survey the contamination.
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Atter determining the nature of ths material, as well as a serial number f rom a component, the NRC was able to trace the material to your facility at which time the inspection was immediately initiated on October 6,1997. During the inspection, two violations of NRC y requirements were idvntified, as described in the NRC inspection report transmitted with our f cgV, letter, dated November 4,1997. On November 12,1997, a predecis;onal enforcement conference was held with Mr. D. Arnold, Corporate Director of Engineering, yourself, and other members of the Stroh Brewing Company staf f to discuss the violations, their causes, and your corrective actions. A copy of the enforcement conference report was sent to you by separate correspondence on November 19,1997.
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The Stroh Brewery Company 2
At the time of the enforcement conference, you had just received information from your scrap
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hauler about deliveries to a location other than Royal Green and you agreed to investigate that i
location for possible evidence of the missing source. Also, you were still working on arrangements for disposal of the material at Royal Green. Subsequent to the conference, in a telephone conversation on November 19,1997, between Mr. G. Miller, Stroh Brewing c
Company Director of Environmental Aff airs, and Ms. S. Arredondo, NRC Region I, Mr. Miller, indicated that The Stroh Brewery Company would provide the NRC with (1) your evaluation of the possibility of disposal of the missing source through Ray Craft & Sons by November 30, 1997; (2) a status report of your findings from your survey of the waste at Royal Green by December 31,1997; and (3) a final report regarding the disposal of waste at Royal Green by January 31,1998.
Based on the information devc'oped during the inspection and the information you provided during the enforcement conference, the NRC has determined that two violations of NRC requirements occurred. The violations are cited in the enclosed Notice of Violation and Proposed imposition of CivilPenalty (Notice), and the circumstances surrounding the violations are described in detail in the subject inspection report. The violations involve (1) the unauthorized disposel of a Gamma Model 101 filllevel gauge (containing 100 millicuries of americium 241) by transfer to a scrap metal recycler in July 1997, a method of transfer not authorized by the NRC; and (2) the failure to perform the reculred leak tests, at the required frequency, or two gauges while they were in your possession from 1981 to July 1997. As noted above, one Am 241 source remains unaccounted for and quite possibly is part of the contaminated load of scrap currently in the dumpster at the Royal Green f acility; however, it is also possible that the source is elsewhere, in the unlikely event that the second source has gone elsewhere and is later found to have caused more significant safety consequences, additional enforcement action could be considered at that time. However, since it is mora likaly that the known event involving, at a minimum, one source being shredded at the Reyni i
Green facility, is tha most sign 19 cant impact resulting from Stroh Brewery Company's fature l
to properly control material, the NRC is issuing the enclosed action rather than waiting for l
more information regarding the status of the other source.
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The first violation is of very significant regulatory concern because it not only resulted in material being uncontrolled in the public domain, but also, as a result of the shredding of the material,it could have posed a threat to individuals if it had been ingested or inhaled. The NRC recognizes that the resulting americium 241 contamination was not likely to have been ingested or nihaled because there was no evidence of spread of contamination at the Royal l
Gre3n f acility beyond the shredded non ferrous residue. Nonetheless, had the material been ingested or inhaled, this loss of material would have had a high impact on members of the i
public, such as workers handling the material at the Royal Green f acility af ter it was shreddad, as well as workers at the Michigan facility had the material been accepted there. Therefore, the violation has been classified at Severity Leveillin accordance with the " General Statement j
of Policy and Procedure for NRC Enforcement Actions" (Enforcement Policy), NUREG 1600.
In accordance with the Enforcement Policy, a base civil penalty in the amount of $4,400 is considered for a Severity Leveill violation. Consistent with the Enforcement Policy, the NRC considered whether credit was warranted for both /dentification and Corrective Action. Credit for identification is not warranted since the improper d!sposal of the gauge was not identified L
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i The Stroh Brewery Company 3
by you, but was found as a result of an event. Credit for corrective action is warranted because your actions, at the time of the enforcement conference, were both prompt and comprehensive. Those actions, which were noted at the conference, included, but were not limited to (1) retention of a contractor to deal with the contamination currently confined to the dumpster located within a fenced area at the Royal Green f acility, including development of plans for propor disposal of the waste;(2) issuance of a corporatn policy to allof your fecilities regarding the methods for handling and controlling gauges containing radioactive material;(3) establishment of plans to better assure appropriate responsibility and accountability of individuals controlling these devices; and (4) assignment of nuclear gauging devices to a responsible individual at each of your facilities.
Therefore, to emphasire theimportance of appropriato control of these devices to assure they are not disposed of improperly, I have boon authorized, af ter cor sultation with the Director, Office cf Enforcement, to issue the enclosed Notice in the base amount of $4,400, in addition, issuance of this Notice constitutes escalated enforcement action, that may subject you to additional inspection effort.
The second violation, which involvoa the f ailure to perform leak tests, has been classified at Soverity Level IV.
You are required to respond to this letter and should follow the instructions specified in the enclosed Notico when preparing your response. In your response, you should describe the status of your actions to (1) ascertain the whereabouts of the other gauge; and (2) describe your efforts to properly dispose of the we:tc at the Royal Green facility. The NRC will use your iesponse, in part, to determine whether f urther enforcement action is necessary to ensuro comp 4ance with regulatory requirements, in accordenco with 10 CFR 2.790 of the NRC's " Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter and its enclosure, will bo placed in the NRC Public Document Room (PDR),
Sincerely,
/
Hubert J. Miller Regional Administrator Docket No. 99990001 Licenso No. General License
Enclosure:
Notice of Violation and Propowd Imposition of Civil Penalty ll'i!,IL,!I,I!,l,.
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- The Stroh Brewery Company 4
cc w/ encl:
Commonwealth of Pennsylvanle State of New Jersey i
G. Walker, Assistant General Counsel l
i The Stroh Brewery Co.
100 River Place
- Detroit, Michtgen 48297 4291 t
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