The following was received from the State of
Kansas via fax:
Today [on] 4/22/14, [the] x-ray radiography crew had a source hang-up, at the NCRA plant in McPherson, Kansas, at approximately 0930 CDT. [The] radiography crew performed their operational and emergency procedures very well. A 35 curie Ir-192 source hung up in the source guide tube. [The crew] made the necessary adjustments to their boundaries, kept watch over them, allowed no one to enter, notified [the crew supervisor] and the Kansas RSO. They re-adjusted the crankouts and pulled them to straighten out the cranks and guide tube, and were able to retract the source into the device with one attempt, and were successful. There was no disconnect or anyone exposed to radiation levels above regulatory limits.
Notification of the incident was given to the plant safety coordinators at the time of the incident, and they remained at distance to avoid exposure, the full time of the incident lasted approximately 10-15 minutes from the initial determination of a stuck source to retraction of the source into the device.
Three monitored IRISNDT staff were onsite and they watched over the boundaries while the retraction was completed. After the incident, all IRISNDT staff read their Instadose film badges and got readings from their personal dosimeters ranging from 1.2 to 3.8 mRem.
Kansas incident # KS140007