NRC Issues Confirmatory Action Letter to International Isotopes

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued late last week a Confirmatory Action Letter to International Isotopes that outlined agreed upon steps needed to be taken before resuming operations at its Idaho Falls, Idaho facility after a worker received a radiation dose there last month. The Aug. 20 incident occurred when a technician was preparing to transfer a shielded Cobalt-60 source into another shielded container and it became stuck. In attempting to move it, the worker received a brief radiation exposure, the NRC said. “We are conducting a follow-up inspection to better understand the circumstances that contributed to this incident and to evaluate actions that International Isotopes has taken to ensure their workers are adequately protected,” said NRC Region IV Administrator Marc Dapas. International Isotopes agreed to suspend similar transfers of radioactive materials at the facility until completion of corrective actions. The company has also agreed to provide the NRC with calculations and evaluations used to determine the worker’s radiation exposure, perform a detailed root cause analysis of the event, and describe corrective actions to prevent recurrence, the NRC said.