NRC NEWS

 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

 801 Warrenville Road

 Lisle IL 60532

 Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov

No. III-02-058 October 10, 2002

CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 

Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 

NRC TO MEET WITH FIRSTENERGY TO DISCUSS PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

OF SPECIAL INSPECTION ON WORKER EXPOSURES

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a public meeting on October 16 in Oak

Harbor, Ohio, to discuss preliminary findings and observations from the NRC special inspection into

an incident at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, which resulted in offsite contamination and

worker radiation exposure. The plant, operated by FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company is located

at Oak Harbor, Ohio. 

The inspection focused on the offsite contamination aspects of the incident, as well as on

worker dose and radiological work planning at the plant.

The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. (EDT) at the Davis-Besse Administration Building, 5503

North State Route 2. The public is invited to observe the meeting and will have the opportunity to

make comments and ask questions of the NRC staff before the meeting is adjourned.

On March 22, representatives of the Oconee nuclear power station in South Carolina notified

the Davis-Besse officials that discrete radioactive particles had been found on a sleeve of a contract

worker, who had last worked at Davis-Besse. Subsequently, FirstEnergy performed an investigation

into the incident and identified four other workers, who had been performing repairs on the steam

generators at Davis-Besse and may have carried discreet radioactive particles off site. Davis-Besse

personnel identified low levels of radioactive contamination in South Carolina and Virginia.

The NRC initiated a special inspection focusing on how microscopic radioactive particles were

carried off the Davis-Besse site on the clothing of these workers, who were employed by a contractor

conducting activities at the Davis-Besse plant. Isolated, low-levels of radioactive contamination were 

subsequently found in Ohio and Texas, in addition to South Carolina and Virginia. The steam

generator work was not related to the reactor vessel head damage discovered at the plant in early

March.

During its ongoing review of the incident, the NRC staff raised questions in August with

FirstEnergy about the level of radiation exposure of the workers involved with the steam generator

work. 
The NRC concluded that additional data was needed to make a final determination on the dose

received by the workers and has expanded its inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the radiation

exposures received by workers at the Davis-Besse plant. The NRC also arranged for an independent

radiation dose assessment by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.

The inspection was expanded on September 30 and a team of five NRC inspectors went to

Davis-Besse to gather information on work planning, the precautions taken during the steam generator

work, the measurements of radioactive contamination received by the workers at the time, and the

radiation dose received as a result of inhalation or ingestion of radioactive material by the workers. 

After the NRC completes its analysis, a report detailing the findings of both special inspections

will become publicly available on the NRC web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/opsexperience/vessel-head-degradation.html.

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