12/18/2006
Incident report
Medical analyses were performed following an incident(1) that caused two employees to be contaminated on October 20. The analytical results confirm that the calculated dose of radioactivity(2) to each employee was less than the annual regulatory limit of 20 millisieverts.
The dose received was about equal to that from two CAT scans in the course of a lifetime and the physicians confirmed that it was without health effects.
Moreover, the incident had no impact on either facility safety or the environment. Based on the medical analyses, AREVA therefore confirmed its proposal to the French safety authority to classify the event as a level 1 incident on the 7-level International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).
(1) During preparations for rinsing of a tank in a facility to be dismantled in the UP2-400 plant.
(2) This dose is calculated for a period of 50 years, based on regular analyses performed for a minimum of one month, and represents the total additional dose that the employees will receive as a result of the incident.
The dose received was about equal to that from two CAT scans in the course of a lifetime and the physicians confirmed that it was without health effects.
Moreover, the incident had no impact on either facility safety or the environment. Based on the medical analyses, AREVA therefore confirmed its proposal to the French safety authority to classify the event as a level 1 incident on the 7-level International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).
(1) During preparations for rinsing of a tank in a facility to be dismantled in the UP2-400 plant.
(2) This dose is calculated for a period of 50 years, based on regular analyses performed for a minimum of one month, and represents the total additional dose that the employees will receive as a result of the incident.