United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs, Region I

475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19406

Fax: 610/337-5241

Internet: dps@nrc.gov or nas@nrc.gov

I-98-40 April 14, 1998

Contact: Diane Screnci (610/337-5330) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Neil A. Sheehan (610/337-5331)

NRC PROHIBITS PENNSYLVANIA COMPANY FROM USING NUCLEAR GAUGES

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has revoked the radioactive

materials license of a southwestern Pennsylvania company for violating

agency requirements. The violations include rendering deliberately

inaccurate statements to NRC officials and allowing the unauthorized

use of nuclear measuring devices.

In addition to barring J&L Testing from using nuclear gauges,

the NRC also issued orders precluding the firm’s president and the

head of an affiliated company, J&L Engineering Inc., from taking part

in any NRC-licensed activities for five years.

J&L Testing, based in Canonsburg, Pa., southwest of Pittsburgh,

held an NRC license that allowed it to possess and use portable

nuclear gauges containing cesium-137 and americium-241 sealed sources.

The devices are used to take moisture density measurements at

locations such as construction sites. The license was due to expire

in February 2000.

Previously, J&L Engineering held an NRC license for the use of

the gauges. However, that license was revoked in August 1993 for nonpayment of NRC fees. When that occurred, the firm was ordered to

cease use of the radioactive materials, properly dispose of them and

notify the NRC that the disposal had taken place. J&L Engineering’s

owner and president, John Boschuk Jr., wrote to the NRC on October 11,

1994, to assure the agency the gauges had not been used for more than

two years.

On November 21, 1994, J&L Testing, whose president is Boschuk’s

wife, Lourdes Boschuk, submitted an application to the NRC asking that

the former J&L Engineering license be restored and transferred to J&L

Testing so that that company could use the gauges. Relying upon J&L

Testing’s application and its statement that the devices had not been

removed from storage since the J&L Engineering license was revoked,

the NRC issued the new license on February 7, 1995.

Subsequently, in early August 1995, the NRC conducted an

inspection of J&L Testing’s facility. During that visit, an NRC
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inspector determined, after looking at company records, that one of

the gauges (that both J&L Testing and J&L Engineering had maintained

had not been used during the time the license was revoked) had, in

fact, been rented to a Bridgeville, Pa., construction company in

September 1994.

Further review by the NRC’s Office of Investigations concluded

that J&L also committed a number of other violations. For example,

Lourdes Boschuk stated at an NRC predecisional enforcement conference

on September 15, 1995, that a specific gauge had remained in storage

and not been used. In fact, that gauge was rented to another company

on September 6, 1995, for use at the Brookhaven Landfill in New York

State. It was not returned to J&L Testing until September 19 or 20.

Also, a witness testified that the Boschuks and others destroyed,

altered, sanitized or otherwise disposed of records shortly after the

NRC inspection to conceal the unauthorized use and/or transfer of

gauges.

The NRC suspended J&L Testing’s license on September 27, 1995,

while the matters involved were being investigated.

J&L Testing has 20 days to request a hearing on the decision or

an extension of time in which to make such a request.

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