
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 25, 1994                   TAG: 9412220050
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

NUCLEAR PLANT FINED $37,500 IN JUNE INCIDENT

Babcock & Wilcox Co. of Lynchburg faces a $37,500 federal fine for a June 28 incident that the government says violated safety limits for uranium handling.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday that it notified B&W on Friday of the proposed fine. The company has 30 days to pay or to protest the fine.

The B&W Naval Nuclear Division in Lynchburg does not have a nuclear reactor but processes uranium into fuel. According to the NRC, strict limits are set on the amount of uranium allowed in the system and on the shape of the vessels holding the uranium, in order to prevent the spontaneous release of radiation, called a criticality.

The June 28 event involved the loss of criticality control in the plant's low-level uranium recovery process line. Not enough uranium was present to cause a criticality accident but safety limits were exceeded, the NRC said.

The agency also cited the company for other violations, including charges related to a July 7 fire that caused two workers and a work area to be contaminated with radioactivity. The workers were sawing a piece of uranium metal clad with a zirconium alloy that is sometimes flammable, and the metal burst into flame.

by CNB