The Nuclear Regulatory Commission
staff has proposed a $4,800 civil penalty against Eastern Isotopes, Incorporated,
of Ashburn, Virginia, for violation of NRC safety requirements which resulted
in a radiation overexposure to the hands of a nuclear pharmacist at a company
facility located in Sterling, Virginia.
NRC officials said that the company violated its NRC license by failing to
limit the annual occupational radiation dose to the hands of a nuclear pharmacist
for a period from January 1, 2001, through December 31, 2001, to a required
50 rem limit. The NRC said the pharmacist received the majority of a dose of
approximately 127 rem to the right hand and approximately 86 rem to the left
hand in September and October of last year due to mishandling of radiopharmaceuticals.
The NRC retained the services of a medical consultant and concluded that
it is highly unlikely that the dose received by the pharmacist resulted in
any significant health effects and that the company's corrective actions have
been adequate. However, NRC officials said the violation was characterized
as a Severity Level 2, the agency's second most serious, due to the fact that
an employee was exposed to more than two times the regulatory limit and a
potential was created for what could have been, under different circumstances,
a significant hazard to the pharmacist or other company staff.
The company has 30 days from receipt of the NRC Notice of Violation to
either pay the civil penalty or to protest its imposition, in whole or in
part.
Members of the public may obtain copies of the letter from the NRC to the
company from the Region II public affairs office on the Internet at OPA2@nrc.gov,
by calling the Region II office at (404) 562-4416/4417 or from the NRC Internet
Web Site at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html
(the public electronic reading room).
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