[NukeNet] NRC questions Materials Testing, Inc. (MTI) control and security of radioactive materials

[Beth Wellington]

  See News release No. I-07-065 of  12/12/07
  Contact:  Diane Screnci, 610/337-5330
                  Neil Sheehan, 610/337-5331
   
   
     
   
   
  I just got notice that NRC staff will hold a a predecisional enforcement conferencemeet with representatives of Materials Testing, Inc. (MTI), a Hopelawn  N.J., company at 11 a.m.   Dec. 18 at the NRC Region I Office, at 475 Allendale Road in King of Prussia, Pa., to discuss an apparent violation of agency requirements involving the control and security of radioactive materials. An unannounced  June 19 NRC inspection at MTI's Neffis PA facilities revealed two failures to properly secure portable nuclear gauges. Interested attendees may ask questions of NRC staff at the meeting before adjournment.   Nuclear gauges containing radioactive material  are used for purposes such  as measuring the density of soil at construction sites.While the actual incident may be minor, this is a way to register your concerns about nukes in general.
   
  MTI was pretty lax.  Here's what happened:    June 19, 2007, NRC inspectors found three portable nuclear gauges had been left unattended by MTI staff and were not secured to prevent unauthorized removal. During the same review, the inspectors watched an MTI authorized gauge user enter the Neffs facility and report he was transporting a portable nuclear gauge in his personal vehicle because a company truck had broken down that morning. When the inspectors walked outside, they saw that the gauge was being transported in the rear of a locked vehicle, but that the driver-side and passenger-side windows were open, thus leaving it vunerable to theft during the time the authorized user was inside the MTI facility.
   


Beth Wellington 
POB 1361 
Roanoke, Virginia 24007 
http://360.yahoo.com/beth_blog


       
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