Honeywell Taking Corrective Action at Metropolis After UF6 Leak

Honeywell is awaiting a confirmatory action letter from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after taking corrective actions at its Metropolis facility following an Oct. 26 uranium hexafluoride leak. The cause of the leak at the Metropolis Works uranium conversion facility in Illinois was traced to an equipment failure near the end of the production process. “The site has enhanced its rigorous emergency response procedures to ensure personnel can view an incident from an expanded number of observation points on site to improve and speed incident classification. The company has also trained its employees in these new procedures and will conduct emergency response drills early next week, culminating in a drill that will be monitored by the NRC and local emergency responders. We anticipate these enhancements will be recognized by the NRC in a Confirmatory Action Letter that will be issued soon,” Honeywell spokeswoman Nina Krauss said in a statement Friday.

 

The equipment that failed “does not share a design with any other piece of equipment required to run the plant, and has been isolated from the plant’s production processes,” according to the statement.