ML20236E880
| ML20236E880 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Wood River Junction |
| Issue date: | 10/27/1978 |
| From: | Howard E, Mccormick R, William Ward NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE) |
| To: | |
| References | |
| PNS-78-052, PNS-78-52, NUDOCS 9806170115 | |
| Download: ML20236E880 (1) | |
Text
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PRELIMINARY NOTIFICATION p,
October 27, 1978 j
PRELIMINARY NOTIFICATION OF SAFEGUARDS EVENT--
PNS-78-52 l
This preliminary notification constitutes EARLY notice of events of POSSIBLE l
national security or public interest significance.
The information presented j_s as initially received without verification or evaluation and is basically all that is known by IE staff as of this date.
Facility: United Nuclear Corporation Fuel Recovery Operation Wood River Junction, Rhode Island (DN 70-820)
Subject:
SHIPMENT OF SNM IN SUPPOSEDLY EMPTY CONTAINER A shipping container that was supposed to be empty was received by the United Nuclear Corporation's Naval Products Division, Montville, Connecticut, from the UNC Wood River Junction facility on October 21, 1978.
When opened on October 25, an 8" X 4" X 1" plastic box was found within the container. An examination of the box disclosed that it contained scrap which included 68 grams of highly enriched uranium.
Details of the fuel composition are classified.
The shipping container in question is believed to have originally been shipped to Wood River Junction as part of a reject and scrap recovery contract.
Internal material control and physical protection procedures at Wood River should have detected the material in the container upon 3
its removal from the process area material access area. The licensee has instituted _a man.ual search of all containers leaving the material access area as an interim measure. A Region I (Philadelphia) inspector was at the Montville facility at the time of the discovery of the Q
incident, and will be onsite at Wood River Junction on October 27, 1978.
/
I Media interest is expected in view of the amount of press coverage generated to date as a result of the ongoing investigation regarding guard training and security record falsification at the Wood River
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facility (PNS-78-51).
No press release is planned by the licensee or A
the NRC at this time. The States of Rhode Island and Connecticut have O
been infonned.
The U.S. Department of Energy has also been informed.
1 The IAT has been notified.
NRC, Region I, (Philadelphia) was notifie'd of this occurrence telephonically i
by the licensee at 11:15 a.m., October 26, 1978.
gContact: WJWard, IE x28080 RGMcCormick, IE x28080 EMHoward, IE x27650 gg4 Distribution:
Transmitted H St ///ed
.g Chairmar Hendrie Commissioner Bradford S. J. Chilk, SECY l
Commissioner Kennedy Commissioner Ahearne C. C. Kammerer, CA (For Distribution) l Conrnissioner Gilinsky/?/
P. Bldg.O'g B-J. G. Davis, IE 1
Transmitted: MNBB,/
b L. V. Gossick, ED0 H. R. Denton, NRR Region T //v/.
S. H. Hanauer, ED0-R. C. DeYoung, NRR i
gg J. J. Fouchard, PA R. J. Mattson, NRR R. G. Ryan, OSP V. Stello, NRR (MAIL) n.a. N. M. Haller, MPA H. K. Shapar, ELD ' ' '.
2 1 R. 5. Boyd, [NRR
C. V. Smith, HMSS PRELIMINARY NOTIFICATION fm m m.m m n,_ + u.m
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