On May 13, 2009, the American Cold Storage Facility experience a failure of their refrigeration system that used anhydrous ammonia as the refrigerant. Two personnel conducting maintenance work, unrelated to the incident, perished due to the exposure to the ammonia gas. The Louisville Fire Department, KY Health Department, and KYDEP responded and performed rescue and recovery operations and air monitoring. The facility reported the incident to the NRC on May 14, 2009 (0928). Upon notice by the NRC, Phone Duty Officer dispatched Louisville Outpost OSC Smith to assess the situation. The victims were recovered, but the release still remained unsecured. Louisville FD and Louisville Health Department are conducting perimeter air monitoring with Area Rae monitors and other direct reading instruments, and so far they have seen negative readings outside the facility's fence. IDLH conditions still exist inside the building where the release is occurring. OSC Smith requested assistance from ATSDR to obtain health based action levels for ammonia and they are being used by local authorities. No evacuations are in place except for plant personnel. Due to the difficulty of securing the release, American Cold Storage hired USES, environmental contractor, and should be on site on the morning of May 15. No night operations were conducted except for air monitoring.
Louisville Fire and Rescue performed the following rescue and air monitoring operations. They also turned off the valve feeding the pipe where the ammonia escaped. The Company brought in a tanker truck to to suction out the ammonia from the system.
The responsible party's environmental contractor will conduct entries on May 15, and assess the cold storage lockers and leak and perform repairs.
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