ML20079R251

Responds to NRC Re Violations Noted in IE Insp Rept 50-142/83-04.Corrective Actions:Emergency Drill Conducted on 831220

ML20079R251
Person / Time
Site:	05000142
Issue date:	01/10/1984
From:	Wegst W CALIFORNIA, UNIV. OF, LOS ANGELES, CA
To:	Scarano R NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION V)
Shared Package
ML20079R243	List: ML20079R251
References
NUDOCS 8402020138
Download: ML20079R251 (4)

Text

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. RECEIVED

- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORN? "s, LOS ANGELES .- MM UCLA armatur oms . causs . i.os 4scrus antauor sw oirco . so rm4senco j y sp eganpg swis cacz g ,

? MUNfTY SAFETY DEPARTMENT omCE OF R RCH er 0CCUPATIoNAL SAFE 1T I.DS ANcELES, CALIFORNIA 90094 January 10, 1984 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Region V 1450 Mario Lane, Suite 210 Walnut Creek, CA 94596 Attention: R.A. Scarano Docket No. 50-142 OL R-71

Dear Sirs:

This is in response to your letter of December 5, 1983 which transmitted Report No. 50-142/83-04 and a Notice of Violation (Severity Level IV). On January 4,1984, Mr. Ostrander (UCLA) called your office to request an extension of the date for responding to the Notice. The request was based upon an apparent mail delay (the letter was not received at UCLA until December 13,1983) combined with Mr. Ostrarider's absence from the campus from December 17, 1983 through January 2, 1984. Mr. Emilio Garcia of your office responded by granting a time extension to January 15, 1984.

The Violation was for falling to perform an evacuation drill between the period December 1982 and November 3, 1983 This violation was not due to either willful neglect nor oversight on the part of our staff, but occurred because we misunderstood the status of our two Emergency Response Plans, and failed to document an actual evacuation (horn test) conducted by Messrs Ostrander and Zane. Even though we think that it is rather artificial to induce abnormal occupancy of the evacuation area for the purpose of performing an evacuation drill, it can certainly be done and UCLA has now conducted such a drill, as follows:

An emergency drill conducted on December 20, 1933, included all available reactor personnel (five), fif teen members of support groups (ambulance, medical personnel, emergency personnel, Research f, Occupational Safety personnel, and police personnel), and several observers. The realism of the drill drew unexpected press attention, and the enclosed article from the UCLA Daily Bruin is in good agreement with the verbal reports and critiques of the several observers. Participants and observers agreed that the drill was highly Instructive in illustrating how multiple emergency groups interact and how those Interactions could be improved with better understanding of participants' roles.

8402020138 840130 PDR ADOCK 05000142 i G PDR

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I personally collaborated in preparing the drill scenario and was a non participating observer of the event. The kind of exercise performed here is a better measure of UCLA's concern with emergen y preparedness than might be inferred from the Notice of Violation.

Now that we understand that UCLA apparently has two Emergency Plans, compilance will be achieved by alternately doing the internal evacuation drill and the 1erger preparedness test at approximately six month intervals, in order to fulfill the semi-annual requirements of the Technical Specifications.

Sincerely, Walter F. Wegst, h.D.

Director, Research &

Occupational Safety cc: Nelli Ostrander WFW/gr

. Nucl ar drHI tests personnel Lab and med center staffs come out ' prepared' By Robina Luther, Staff Writer developing a short set of Wegst also said the labs on

- instructions for medical campus that use radioactive A full-scale emergency drill personnel to read in order to materials may not be well-conducted last month at prepare themselves for dealing educated on the methods of UC L A's nuclear . reactor with such an accident. ith a contaminated dealing w"We're working on en bled campus community Assistant Director of the person.

safety officials to assess the Emergency Medical Center training the hundreds of preparedness of the nuclear Dr. Larry Baraff disagreed people who work with radia-energy lab staff and the with Wegst's conclusion and tion on campus," he said.

UCLA Medical Center in the said, "It was one of the best Wegst said one of the mcct treatment of accident victims drills we've ever had." Baraff important results of the drill contaminated with radiation. said the medical center was showing UCLA's medical The Dec. 20 drill was follows "a very detailed pro- personnel that the treatment conducted in Boelter Hall's tecol in line with what is of a contaminated person is nuclear energy lab to fulfill recommended by REACITS, very similar to the treatment Nuclear Regulatory Com- the national training program of a patient with an infectious ,

mission requirements, which for radiation accidents." disease. "You use gloves, dictate that an emergency Baraff said there has never gowns, hats - the same way drill must be held every six been a significant radiation as with infectious materials. It months. At the recommenda- accident in Los Angeles. Continued on Page 7 tion of Walter Wegst, director I of UCLA's Office of Commu-nity Safety, the drill was tive materials often come in a extended to include the med*- crynh b - and, at cal center so his staff couki stseed from Fage I the same time, injuring his evaluate its preparedness in Coa.t g,, reall different," he said. head. The head injury, not i dealing with contaminated Normafly persons contami- the contamination, was the i

• Patierits. nated with a radioactive reason the medical center was Since t U material do not need medical involved in the drill, Wegst ,

T t, . ,j attention unless an unusually said.

large dose of radiation is The drill's scenario did not m ave a aIfoh ing received, Wegst said. Most involve an accident resulting radioactive-contaminated pa- .

the ume, au ymn need is a from a malfunction d the tients, whether they come ' Ink, soap and water, to get reactor, but frorn a spill of ,-

from UCLA or off campus' nd I the contamination, he radioactive matenal that was Wegst said said. supposedly being stored at the When asked if the medical situadon podulaW in reactor.

center was well prepared for the drill, however, involved a Although it was situated at treatment of a contaminated nudear energy lab worker the nuclear reactor to satisfy patient, Wegst said, "Realis- falling down and spilling a NRC requirements, Wegst ticall ' robab! t'" He s urce f radiation - which said the drill is applicable to cdded t at hs office ' is _.

was represented by a jar of many other locations on salt in the drill since radioac- Continued on Page 8 Dq B4 7 10, tut e

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Continued frean Page 7 P 6='* r6 dr " $-

campus which use radioactive Baraff agreed and said "If-materials for experimenta] it had been a real vi$ tim, purposes. everything would have gone real well." He said emergency

" Radioactive materials are medical technicians are not used in literally hundreds of labs at UCLA " Wegst said II"*d I" h* I

a cident victins contaMaated explaining that the potential wie radiation, but that. the for an accident involvin a radioactive source is as liby medical center plans to train in one of the chemistry or EMTs who man the . am-biology department's labs or ances in Se trea%t d in the medical center as at nu ear energy lab in The precautions Wegst said would be taken in trans-To cope with the danger of porting a radiation-radiation contamination, most contaminated patient were labs have a safety shower, observed in the drill.

which douses the contami- "Everyone was wearing nated person with a large gloves," said Associate Re-quantity of water. "They (the search Engineer Chuck showers) are there primarily Ashbaugh, who was the reac-for washing off chemical tor operator in the drill.

spills," Wegst said, but he added that they are also Other precautions used to a effective in washing off radio. contamination accident and active contamination, used in the drill to simulate a real rtdiation problem in-The nuclear energy lab staff cluded covering a victim with and the emergency medical a blanket to limit the spread personnel were evaluated by a of radioactivity and covering group, including Wegst, who the ambulance and the gurney took notes during the drill and with plastic sheets so they contributed suggestions for would not be contaminated.

improving operations if a similar accident were to oc. The Office of Community cur. Safety determined before the drill that the " contaminated" "Had that been a real victim, played by one of the accident, there would have employees of the nuclear been no major problems," energy lab, would be taken to Wegst said, the morgue of the hospital to Wegst admitted that there eliminate the spread of con-were a few " glitches" in the tamination through other operation, but concluded that areas of the hospital. The all the participants in the drill morgue is a good place to take performed appropriately. contamination victi ns, Wegst

! Everybody did quite well. said, because it is easily They used common sense to accessible through a loading solve the little problems that dock nearby and because the arose that they maybe never tile walls and metal examina-had had to face before." tion tables, normally used for aut pies, are easily cleaned.

One of the " glitches" Wegst mentioned imalved the am- In a case of contamination, bulance personnel who would the victim's clothes are cut off have spread contaminated ma- his body on the way to the terial if the drill had been for hospital to stop further spread real. The contaminated mate- of radiation, and this pro-i rial would have been spread .cedure was observed in the to the ambulance, but Wegst drill as well, although the said it weuld have only "made worker was given disposable a mess that would ha've been coveralls so his own clothes hard to clean up." "It would not have to be sacri-wouldn't have endangered ficed.

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