Decade
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Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and Harmony with all Creation"
June 22, 2006
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Pilgrim Workers Launch Search for Two Lost Radioactive Parts
PLYMOUTH -- Workers at the Pilgrim nuclear plant were searching last week for two small pieces of radioactive equipment reported missing on Monday . Two ballpoint pen-size neutron detectors -- moved from the reactor core to the spent fuel pool in the mid-1980s -- could not be found during a recent housekeeping clean up, according to Pilgrim spokesman David Tarantino . The detectors are radioactive, but do not pose a safety threat to the public, officials said , because they are almost certainly somewhere in the spent fuel pool -- just not where officials thought they were -- or they were sent to a low-level radioactive waste facility in Barnwell, S.C., and the transfer was not properly recorded. Each contains less than .003 grams of uranium-235. That's not enough to make a weapon, and there is no reason to suspect the material was stolen, Tarantino said. ``We're talking about a small quantity of material, but it's something we take very seriously," said Neil Sheehan , a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who said it was too early to know whether the plant would face a fine or other penalty. ``It's unusual (and unacceptable ) for a plant to lose track of nuclear material, especially special nuclear material like uranium-235," Sheehan wrote in an e-mail. The standards, he said, are clear: ``They need to know all the time what they have in there, and keep very good track. . . . What this boils down to is the whole issue of accountability." David Lochbaum , director of the nuclear safety project at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group based in Cambridge, agreed that the missing devices are not a threat to the public because they would have triggered sensors at the plant if they had been removed. Such detectors are extremely radioactive when they are removed from the reactor, as these were two decades ago, but by now they would be emitting roughly the equivalent of a chest X-ray, according to Lochbaum. The detectors were used to measure power levels in the reactor. In recent years, the NRC has asked plants to tighten accountability for small pieces of equipment that may be stored in the spent fuel pool, according to Lochbaum . A `` Pandora's box" was opened, he said, when the Millstone 1 nuclear plant in Connecticut reported that two spent fuel rods were missing in 2000. The plant, which is now permanently shut down, was fined $288,000. Last summer, the NRC issued a ``severity level three" violation to the Vermont Yankee power plant because two pieces of spent fuel rods were reported missing, although they were later found. In December of last year, the Humboldt Bay Unit 3 nuclear power plant in California was fined $96,000 for losing segments of a fuel rod that were reportedly removed from the reactor in 1968. ``The good news is people are now looking to get their arms around the problem and do the tracking," Lochbaum said. Because plants are tracking the contents of their spent fuel pool more assiduously now, they will have a complete inventory. ``Knowing is better than being in the dark." Said Tarantino : ``The reporting requirements weren't as stringent" in the 1980s ``as they are today. We don't believe they left the plant, and are continuing to look for them." Results of the plant's internal investigation of the spent fuel pool will be released Tuesday, he said.
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