We've heard other rumors in addition to the below. I don't want to print any rumors here. I'm sure we'll get the full story soon. NMC UPDATE NRC team sent to Palisades following containment incident April 20, 2006 The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has sent a four-person special investigation team to Palisades to evaluate an incident that occurred in containment early Wednesday morning. Palisades is in the 19th day of a refueling and maintenance outage. The incident, which occurred following placement of the in-core transfer cask into the flooded reactor cavity, involved a cask liner that floated to the surface of the pool as workers were retrieving the liner rigging. The liner contained used in-core detectors from previous outages. High dose rates of radiation occurred when the liner broke the surface of the water for a few seconds. Six workers immediately evacuated the 649-foot elevation of containment when directed by supervisors and Radiation Protection personnel. Management also notified the NRC of the event. After breaking the water surface, the liner sank back to the bottom of the reactor cavity—landing upright next to the transfer cask. Despite the liner's surfacing, the event did not cause a release of airborne contamination and individual dose readings following the event were well below dose alarm set points—and the 5,000 millirem annual federal limit for radiation workers. The highest electronic dose reading recorded by a worker following the event was 41 millirem, with about 34 millirem due to the event. The average person receives about 360 millirem of radiation annually from natural and man-made background radiation, while the average nuclear worker receives about 670 millirem of radiation per year. An incident response team, with NMC fleet support, has been formed at Palisades and is in the process of analyzing facts and data from the incident. A limited amount of work is being done in containment until further notice.
