NRC Identifies Eight Abnormal Occurrence Events in FY 2021 Annual Report to Congress

Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: 22-033 August 10, 2022
CONTACT: David McIntyre, 301-415-8200

NRC Identifies Eight Abnormal Occurrence Events in FY 2021 Annual Report to Congress

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published its annual report to Congress for fiscal year 2021 regarding Abnormal Occurrences involving medical and industrial uses of radioactive material.

Eight Abnormal Occurrences were identified. Six of these events were medical events, such as misadministration of radioactive material in diagnosis or treatment of an illness. This represents approximately 0.005 percent of the estimated number of nuclear medicine and radiation therapy procedures involving radioactive material performed in the United States annually. Two events – one at a medical facility and another at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research in Gaithersburg, Maryland, – involved serious safety-significant deficiencies in management or procedural controls. No events at commercial nuclear power plants in fiscal year 2021 met the criteria for an Abnormal Occurrence declaration.

U.S. law defines an Abnormal Occurrence as an unscheduled incident or event that the NRC determines to be significant from the standpoint of public health or safety. The NRC sets specific criteria for determining which events qualify. The FY 2021 report identified no “Other Events of Interest” as defined in the Abnormal Occurrences criteria.

The Report to Congress on Abnormal Occurrences, Fiscal Year 2021, is available on the NRC website as NUREG-0090, Volume 44.

22-033.pdf