NEI: The F. Daiichi dosimetry "cover-up" update

NEI Update

This story caught our notice here at NEI, so I chatted up a member of our legal team to get some additional insight into how such a situation would be dealt with by our regulators at NRC:

The NRC’s deliberate misconduct rule for reactors (10 CFR 50.5) is applicable not only to licensees for so-called “willful” violations of NRC regulations, but also to “any contractor (including a supplier or consultant), subcontractor, employee of a contractor or subcontractor….”  The proper reference to the radiation protection standards is 10 CFR 20.1502, which requires “Each licensee shall monitor occupational exposure to radiation from licensed and unlicensed radiation sources under the control of the licensee and shall supply and require the use of individual monitoring devices…”  These violations, if proven, could result in civil penalties or other regulatory actions, like banning individuals who engaged in that activity from working in the nuclear industry.  These violations could also result in criminal punishment if they are found to be “willful.”