Nuclear agency to review leak at Richland plant

 

Apr 7 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Mary Hopkin Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with Areva NP staff Thursday to discuss violations discovered in October when there was a small hydrogen fluoride release at Areva's Richland facility.

Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the Georgia-based commission, said the meeting is a routine part of an investigation and the incident was not major.

"There has already been an investigation but this is an opportunity for them to tell their side of the story and for us to get information about the actions they have taken to remedy the situation," said Hannah.

The incident occurredat the plant, which produces fuel for nuclear power reactors.

Two workers entered a process area inside the plant's dry conversion building, where uranium hexafluoride is heated in an autoclave to produce a gas that is then moved to a pressurized vessel. Steam and nitrogen are added to convert the gas to uranium oxide.

The process produces a byproduct called hydrogen fluoride, a nonradioactive chemical that is collected and sold to the electronics industry, which uses it to etch computer chips.

When the workers entered the building they detected an unusual odor and immediately left the process area, according to NRC reports. They reported to the first aid station and that evening one of the workers was admitted to the hospital.

Although hydrogen fluoride is caustic, workers would have had to have been exposed to it for at least 30 minutes for there to be long-term health concerns.

Air sample tests found elevated levels of hydrogen fluoride vapor near a line for the off-gas system but there was no indication of the release spreading beyond the immediate process area or to the environment, an NRC incident report said.

Hannah said NRC staff is satisfied the company completed a thorough investigation and analysis of the event and has taken appropriate corrective actions, but inspectors identified apparent violations involved event reporting, inappropriate respiratory protection equipment and inadequate engineering and administrative controls for small hydrogen fluoride releases.

Bob Link, manager of environmental health, safety and licensing for the plant, said the Richland office did three root cause analysis of the incident to prevent similar incidents and evaluated the response to the event.

Link said the company has improved its protocols and procedures and added employee training and enhanced detection systems inside the plant.

"We've also improved maintenance and inspection procedures," he said.

The meeting between Areva and the NRC will begin at 8 a.m. in the NRC's Region 2 Office in Atlanta, Ga. and will be open to the public. Although the meeting is between Areva and the NRC, people attending the meeting will have an opportunity to ask questions of NRC staff at the end of the meeting.