NRC CITES WAL-MART FOR VIOLATIONS 

IN HANDLING TRITIUM EXIT SIGNS 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cited Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., with four 

violations concerning improper disposal and transfer of tritium exit signs at its stores 

throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. 

 The violations, issued Oct. 28, concerned the improper transfer or disposal of 

2,462 signs from Wal-Mart stores in states under NRC jurisdiction between 2000 and 

2008, and the improper transfer of an additional 517 signs between various Wal-Mart 

facilities. The company also failed to appoint an official responsible for complying with 

regulatory requirements and failed to report broken or damaged signs as required. 

 Exit signs containing tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, pose little threat 

to public health and safety and do not constitute a security risk. However, the NRC 

requires proper recordkeeping and disposal of the signs because a damaged or broken 

sign could cause minor radioactive contamination of the immediate vicinity, requiring 

environmental clean up. 

 The improper transfer or disposal of the 2,979 signs and failure to appoint a 

responsible official were determined to be a Severity Level III problem under NRC’s 

enforcement policy, and the failure to report damaged signs is a Severity Level IV 

violation, the lowest on the NRC’s enforcement scale. 

 The Severity Level III problem could have incurred a civil penalty of $369,300. 

However, the NRC decided to exercise enforcement discretion and waive a civil penalty 

based on Wal-Mart’s prompt, comprehensive, and extraordinary corrective and 

preventive actions. After it was discovered that there was a problem with accounting for 

its tritium exit signs, the company applied considerable resources to resolve the problems, 

including inventorying all tritium exit signs at its stores nationwide, remediating 

contamination from damaged signs at several stores, and subsequently removing all 

tritium exit signs in Wal-Mart facilities and replacing them with exit signs that do not 

contain radioactive material. 

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 

Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 

E-mail: opa.resource@nrc.gov

Site: http://www.nrc.gov

No. 09-180 October 30, 2009
 “Our inspection, and the extensive actions Wal-Mart had to undertake to resolve 

our concerns, should stand as a warning to other organizations and corporations not to be 

lax in their handling of devices containing radioactive material,” said Cynthia Carpenter, 

NRC’s director of enforcement. “Because Wal-Mart realized it had problems and took 

significant and effective corrective actions, we believe it is appropriate not to impose a 

civil penalty in this case.” 

 The NRC’s special inspection of Wal-Mart was initiated in December 2008 and 

concluded in August. The inspection report is available in the NRC’s ADAMS online 

document system at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html by entering 

Accession Number ML092380657 in the search window. 

 The agency has also issued a Demand for Information to more than 60 

organizations and corporations known to possess large quantities of tritium exit signs, 

requesting they report to the NRC about their recordkeeping and accounting of their 

signs. The agency is reviewing information submitted in response to that Demand for 

Information and may initiate additional enforcement actions if warranted. A press release 

about the Demand for Information is available here: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doccollections/news/2009/09-011.html. 

 The NRC has worked closely with its 37 Agreement States – which regulate 

commercial uses of radioactive material – concerning the Wal-Mart inspection and the 

Demand for Information to other organizations. Agreement States are responsible for any 

enforcement actions regarding tritium exit signs in their jurisdiction. 

 

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