Home > Electronic Reading Room > Document Collections > News Releases > 1998 > III-98-008

	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532
	CONTACT:	Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663/e-mail: rjs2@nrc.gov
		Angela Greenman (630) 829-9662/e-mail: opa3@nrc.gov

NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: RIII-98-08

January 20, 1998

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a predecisional enforcement conference by telephone on January 28 with representatives of Shelwell Services, Inc., Hebron, Ohio, on apparent radiation safety violations.

The telephone conference will start at 1:00 p.m. in the Second Floor Executive Conference Room of the NRC Region III Office, 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle, Illinois. It is open to public observation. NRC officials will be available at its conclusion to answer questions from the news media and other interested observers.

The discussion will focus on the apparent failure by the company to maintain security for a nuclear well logging device while it was stored. The device contained encapsulated radioactive material that is used by the company to calibrate well logging tools. The company uses well logging tools to measure underground geologic characteristics during the drilling of gas and oil wells.

During an NRC inspection in November of last year, an inspector noted that the device was not locked within its concrete storage pit since it was too large and one of the exterior building doors was not completely latched.

Other apparent violations to be discussed include the Shelwell radiation safety officer's failure to wear a radiation monitoring device while working with nuclear material; the failure to have radiation survey instruments properly calibrated; and the failure to adequately measure radiation doses in unrestricted areas.

The decision to hold an enforcement conference does not mean the NRC has determined that a violation has occurred or that enforcement action will be taken. Rather, the purpose is to discuss apparent violations, their causes and safety significance; to provide the licensee an opportunity to point out any errors that may have been made in the NRC inspection report; and to enable the company to outline its proposed corrective actions.

No decision on the apparent violations or any contemplated enforcement action, such as a fine, will be made at this conference. Those decisions will be made by senior NRC officials at a later date.