Cites 10 incidents that occurred in licensed medical facilities during that period.
– By Linton Levy –
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released its annual report on abnormal occurrences for fiscal year 2008, citing 10 incidents that occurred in licensed medical facilities during that period.
An accident or event is considered an abnormal occurrence if it involves a major reduction in the degree of protection of public health and safety. Abnormal occurrences can include, but are not necessarily limited to, moderate exposure to or release of radioactive material licensed by the NRC; major degradation of safety-related equipment; or major deficiencies in design, construction, use of or management controls for facilities or radioactive material licensed by the NRC.
For FY 2008, there were no abnormal occurrences at NRC-licensed nuclear power reactors. Five of the 10 abnormal occurrences in medical facilities involved NRC licensees, while the rest involved Agreement State licensees. (Thirty-six states have entered into agreements with the NRC to regulate radioactive materials.) Two of the events involved exposure of an embryo or fetus. The rest were medical events, such as misadministration of radioactive material during diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. Thousands of such procedures are conducted in U.S. medical facilities each year.
The report details investigations of each incident by the NRC, Agreement States and licensees, as well as measures taken to ensure such incidents do not recur.
The report on abnormal occurrences for fiscal year 2008 is published as NUREG-0090, vol. 31. The report was transmitted to Congress on May 16 and is available on the NRC Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/congress-docs/correspondence/2009/. A notice of the report’s availability was published June 8 in the Federal Register.