Was this a way to rare non-fatal Darwin award.
Posted on 10/31/2015 7:59:14 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
(CNSNews.com) – Following an investigation by its inspector general, the Department of Energy has issued a new rule advising its workers to refrain from putting highly enriched uranium in their pockets.
“After interviewing chemical operators and reviewing revised Y-12 procedures, we confirmed that chemical operators are no longer allowed to place samples in their pockets and must check their pockets before removing their coveralls,” said a report issued by the DOE Office of Inspector General.
The report, released in September, described a safety violation that occured last year at the DOE’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
"We received allegations that special nuclear material (SNM) was not appropriately managed at the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12)," said the IG report. "Specifically, we were informed that on January 22, 2014, highly enriched uranium (HEU) samples were discovered in the pocket of coveralls located on a laundry truck that annunicated an alarm as the truck tried to exit Y-12s Protected Area."
The DOE's Y-12 National Security Complex is involved in the manufacture of nuclear weapons, according to the department's Y-12 website.
"Y-12's core mission is to ensure a safe, secure, and reliable U.S. nuclear deterrent, which is essential to national security," says the site.
“Every weapon in the U.S. nuclear stockpile has components manufactured, maintained or ultimately dismantled by Y-12, the nation’s Uranium Center of Excellence,” the website stated. “We employ only the most advanced and failsafe technologies to protect the stockpile.”
According to the report, when there is a safety violation inside the facility, workers who discover the violation should “establish at least a 15-foot boundary around the samples, make no attempt to correct the situation, and notify Nuclear Criticality Safety (NCS) about the discovery.”
This is known as Y-12 procedure Y56-001, Abnormal Condition Involving Fissile Material.
This “mitigates the risk of adverse health effects such as radiation sickness, increased risk of cancer, and possible death,” according to the report.
“NCS determined that the requirements of the procedure to establish a safe stand-off distance were not met,” the report stated.
“We determined the requirements were not met, in part, because it was unclear as to whether Y56-001 procedures applied outside of the production facilities, as in this case. Also, we were told that training on this procedure did not specify that the procedure should be used outside of the production facilities,” the report added.
The inspector general’s review of the incident “revealed that Y-12 had not completed corrective actions concerning: 1) a safety violation that occurred during the discovery of the HEU samples, and 2) the untimely notification to the Plant Shift Superintendent Office (PSS) about the discovery of the HEU samples.”
After the inspector general’s office notified Y-12 officials, they agreed to implement corrective actions for both issues, according to the report.
Also, the report noted that PSS officials were not notified of the incident until about eight hours afterwards, whereas PSS officials are supposed to be notified immediately about such safety violations, according to Y19-115, Reporting and Handling Security Concerns and Events.
According to one employee at the facility, they assumed that PSS was already aware of the incident, but could not remember who notified PSS or when PSS was notified. “This confusion led to the delayed PSS notification,” the report stated.
Officials at the Y-12 facility have taken steps to improve the tracking and handling of highly enriched uranium and other special nuclear material, the report noted.
“Although Y-12 already had a bar code tracking system in place prior to the incident, SNM samples were exempt from bar code tracking because SNM samples were considered Category IV nuclear material due to their low weight,” the report stated.
According to a Y-12 Subject Matter Expert (SME), the possibility of “a nuclear criticality accident occurring during the incident was very low,” because the “minimum critical mass” for such an incident is over 700 grams, while the samples in question only contained 20 grams of uranium. Also, personnel wore proper protective equipment.
CNSNews.com contacted the Department of Energy with questions about the report, but the DOE has not responded.
Yep, Homer Simpson Glow Stick....
We have become an Idiocracy.
The crops: grow them. People will pay to eat them.
Attention Workers: Please Do No Put HEU in Your Pockets. Thank You. The Management.
Got a secret
Can you keep it?
Swear this one you’ll save
Better lock it in your pocket
Taking this one to the grave
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o5p-uspcgRY
Was this a way to rare non-fatal Darwin award.
Let's try again.
Was this a way to win a rare non-fatal Darwin award.
People don’t know NOT to put enriched Uranium in their pocket? Who knew?
In the movie “Deuce Bigelow 2” there was the Ukrainian lady who wire a veil because her parents were exposed to Chernobyl, an instead of a nose she had something ‘else’ there where her nose would be... A story like this, and bringing up Homer Simpson can lead to unintended consequences... Jk
Lettuce pray, you must have a head fer this sort of thing.
Was someone trying to smuggle HEU out of the facility? Testing the security measures?
Was that considered?
The place must be chock full of Liberals. It is the only explanation for this. Nobody else could be that stupid.
I knew a guy who worked at the Idaho Nuclear Engineering Lab. He said when somebody left their dosimeter badge laying around, the finders would put it in the microwave a while and set it off. Then the loser would have to come up with an explanation to give to the safety officers why they weren’t wearing it.
I used to do work out at the Hanford Facility. One place they were testing out the sensors to detected for radiation at the ports. This guy would carry a Dixie cup out to his car (personal car), set it on the dash and drive through the sensors a few times.
He would go back inside, an hour later do it again.
I finally asked him what he was doing.
“Oh - just running some calibrations on the radiation sensors.”
Was the owner of those pants named Mohammed?
The first inkling in the West of Chernobyl occurred when Swedish nuclear plant workers arriving for work turned out to have higher radiation readings than they had at the end of their previous shift.
Yes - my thought at the time was: -That guy is really stupid, or those sensors are REALLY sensitive!-
This said with deadpan face. As though a possibility were "Everybody, quick! Let's press our pockets together!"
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