NRC ISSUES CONFIRMATORY ORDER TO USEC’SPADUCAH GASEOUS DIFFU

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NRC ISSUES CONFIRMATORY ORDER TO USEC’SPADUCAH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANTThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a Confirmatory Order to the United States Enrichment Corp.’s Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which has agreed to a series of correctiveactions after an operator deliberately violated radiation protection procedures.The order stems from an incident that occurred at the Paducah, Ky., facility on March 17, 2010. An operator was involved in a routine activity involving changing cylinders in the enrichment cascade building and became contaminated. The operator then deliberately failed to properly use theradiation monitor, bypassing it when leaving the contamination control zone and spreadingcontamination to an adjacent area.The incident was quickly identified and investigated by USEC-Paducah management. Noworkers received any significant radiation exposure. The operator involved was disciplined and is no longer employed by USEC-Paducah.The Confirmatory Order stems from a settlement reached under the NRC’s AlternativeDispute Resolution process, which was initiated at the request of USEC-Paducah. Companyofficials acknowledged the incident was serious and implemented a series of corrective actions andenhancements to prevent recurrence. The corrective actions agreed to by USEC include multiple staff briefings by management,procedural reviews and revisions, retraining and communication of lessons learned to staff. Additionally, USEC committed to enhancing new employee orientation and employee training to ensure staff clearly understands the consequences of deliberate non-compliance with procedures. USEC will also expand an ongoing Safety Conscious Work Environment assessment to include the safety culture components of decision making and work practices. As part of the agreement, the NRC will not issue a Notice of Violation in the matter and will not propose a civil penalty.Copies of the Confirmatory Order will be posted on the NRC website. ###